Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“Do not ever corner her like this again,” he ordered, reaching back to grab my hand.
I let him tow me from the room and straight through the kitchen.
“I don’t have any shoes on,” I reminded him when we reached the door to the garage.
Without a word, he turned and lifted me, carrying me to the car.
I was expecting to drive back to my apartment or something, but instead Beau pulled the car around the back of the house and into the woods. Gravel crunched under the tires as we wound through the trees.
“Where are we going?” I asked quietly, reaching out to rest my hand on his thigh.
“Just—away from the house,” Beau replied, glancing at me.
“What’s back here?” It was beautiful. Beyond the narrow road, the forest seemed untouched and wild.
“Nothing really,” he said, rolling to a stop. “If we’d taken the right fork instead of the left, we would’ve ended up at the airstrip, but this way doesn’t go anywhere.”
“How much property do you guys have?” I asked, turning in my seat to look around. I chose to ignore the airstrip comment. That level of wealth was hard to even contemplate.
“Two hundred acres,” Beau replied. “My parents bought it sixty years ago. It’s worth a lot now, but it wasn’t then.”
I nodded like it was the most normal thing in the world to own hundreds of acres of untouched land. Pulling my knees to my chest, I leaned my head against the seat and looked at Beau. He was still stiff with anger, his hands wrapped tightly around the steering wheel.
“I’m sorry they did that,” he said eventually. “They meant well.”
“Mordecai—” I hesitated. “He said that I’m your reincarnated mate.”
“Yes.”
“But how is that possible?” I asked slowly. “Do I…Uh, do I look like her, or—”
“No,” Beau blurted with a small shake of his head. He still wasn’t looking at me.
“Oh.”
“She was taller,” he said after a moment. “Dark curly hair and it was cut short—to her shoulders. Brown eyes.”
“So…when you saw me—”
“I knew you wouldn’t look the same,” he replied.
“You were disappointed.” The realization made me want to curl up in a ball.
“I wasn’t.” He said it too quickly to be believable.
I turned my head to stare out the windshield. I wasn’t even sure what to say. The fact that Beau had a mate before me was enough of a gut punch. To also know that she’d been some dark-haired bombshell that he’d clearly held on a pedestal for God knew how long? It was a lot to process.
“Am I anything like her?” I asked softly.
Beau didn’t answer.
Suddenly, the car was too small. I couldn’t breathe. Throwing open the door I hurled myself out. Mud immediately soaked through my socks as I walked a few steps away.
I was some reincarnated woman that Beau had loved? That wasn’t the right word. It was too small for a mating bond. I understood that now that ours had solidified. I was the reincarnation of his mate.
My head throbbed.
He was mine. That was what I’d signed up for. I’d jumped headlong into an irrevocable mating bond on the certainty that he was mine and would be mine forever. That Vampires were devoted to their mates. I’d forced my way past our rocky beginning on the assumption that it was just one of those things that mates dealt with.
I’d had no idea that I was competing with a ghost.
Of course he didn’t even like me. He’d been comparing me to a woman he’d cared so much for that he’d kept her human husband safe instead of biding his time so he could be with her himself. That kind of sacrifice was unbelievable.
But he’d happily fucked me within hours of meeting me.
I didn’t know that Beau had followed me outside until I felt his hands bracing me as I stumbled to my knees and started to vomit. It just kept coming, like my body was purging me of every terrible realization.
They came too fast to fully process, but I eventually stopped on the glaringly obvious.
He’d touched every centimeter of my body, but he’d never even kissed me.
“Baby, it’s too cold out here,” Beau said gently.
I felt like a shell as he lifted me and carried me back to the car. The comfort I’d found in touching him, even at my angriest, was missing.
I felt nothing.
Chapter 14
Beau
“Hey,” Chance murmured quietly, swinging open the door. “We just got back.”
I nodded, taking another drink of the bourbon that wasn’t touching my headache. “Mordecai and Helen still here?”
“Took the guest room,” he confirmed. “What the fuck happened?”
“Reese found out about Millie,” I replied, glancing at the bedroom door. I’d only left her after she’d fallen asleep. Honestly, she could’ve been faking it just so I’d go.
She hadn’t said a word all day.
“Did Mordecai explain that she’s—You know, that they have the same soul?”