Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
“You can cry.”
“No.”
He sits back and watches me patiently. And I don’t exactly know what happens. One second, I’m standing there with my arms crossed, and the next, I’m stumbling toward Joel, his image blurred by a veil of tears, falling into his lap like a marionette with severed strings. He arranges me sideways on his lap, tucking my head beneath his chin, and he holds me while I sniffle and sob, my tears soaking the front of his dress shirt.
“He told me once that I was ruining his life,” I whisper.
Joel jerks beneath me. “What?”
I nod, wiping my face on the material of his shirt. “Once, when I was fifteen, he was getting ready to leave on a date and I started coming down with the flu. He had to cancel his date to take care of me. ‘Why are you trying to ruin my life, Haylo?’ I can still hear him saying it.”
“He didn’t mean it. No one could ever mean that about you.”
“I hear it in the back of my head every time I fail. Every time I get a bad grade or don’t get invited on a girls’ night. Those words get in deep, you know?” I swipe at my eyes. “They make me wonder if I was the reason he was never around. Like maybe if I’d been someone else, someone better, it wouldn’t have been such a hardship to be my father.”
“No. Oh God, don’t think like that. He fell short, not you. You’re not supposed to be perfect growing up and parents are supposed to guide you through that. They’re supposed to take joy in being the one you depend on. Otherwise, the fault lies with them.” He strokes my hair and kisses my forehead. “You got the flu, angel. People get the flu.”
“I’m a miserable sick patient. I—”
“Cry?”
“Yes. About the unfairness of the universe picking poor me to have a stuffy nose. I’m very self-centered when I’m ill. What about you?”
A beat passes. “My father was strict when I was growing up. An Air Force guy like me. He expected me to always be tough. Sickness wasn’t supposed to slow us down. Not when there are men going into battle, fighting wounded.” I sense a wry twist of his lips. “My mother used to send him on errands when I got sick, though, so she could sneak in and feed me soup. I let her, even though I could do it myself. She needed it more than me.”
“I like to think my mom would have done that, if she’d stayed alive.”
“She would have.” He rubs his lips against my temple. “And someday in the future, you’ll feed soup to your daughter and when you see how fulfilling that is, you’ll know the fault was not with you, Haylo.”
His words impact my chest. Hard.
Along with the reality of what I’m doing.
I’m seducing this man…and my actions could ruin him. Not only would I wreck his relationship with my father, but Phil has a lot of power at the airline. Seniority. Sleeping with Joel could potentially jeopardize his job.
He doesn’t deserve that, does he? Look at him trying to comfort me.
He’s a good man.
Still, he came to parents’ weekend knowing my father was lying about his whereabouts and plans. Joel lied right to my face, didn’t he? Telling me that Phil was stuck in Thailand because of the weather? Sure, that was before we’d met and…bonded.
Oh no, we have bonded, haven’t we?
Trepidation slithers into my middle. I’m getting closer and closer to this man who lied to me, in the same profession as my father. And he’s yet another man who is trying to keep me at a distance. Isn’t he?
Ignoring the whisper in my head telling me Joel is better, different…kind of wonderful, I remind myself of my plan, wipe away my tears and sit up in his lap. “Actually, I think charades sounds like a fun idea.” I slide off his lap onto the floor at his feet. “I’ll go first.”
It’s not hard to slip back into seduction mode when I look up at him from the floor. He’s six foot three inches of hard, lean male. A more powerful build than I’ve ever seen in real life. Thick, sturdy thighs. Shoulders for days. A posture that proclaims him a watchful and capable king. I can still feel the sting of the spanking he gave me down in the lobby, brief though it was. I loved it. I loved him touching me in public to warn off the other men. I loved his hand locked around my throat earlier at the lake.
He can comfort me, soothe me, stand up for me…
But he has a darker side, too, doesn’t he?
It’s time once again to coax it to the surface.
And succeed with my plan to solve my daddy issues, once and for all.