Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 128313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Hallie settled down on me, then played with the hairs on my chest. “That shouldn’t have happened again, should it?” I hated hearing the dejection in her voice. I held her tighter. I didn’t want to answer. Because it shouldn’t have, but I was sure as fuck glad it did. “Do you really have to leave tomorrow?” she said. Hallie’s voice held a note of apprehension within it. Like she shouldn’t be asking me to stay. If anyone on this earth had the right to make me stay anywhere these days, it was this raven-haired, blue-eyed angel.
But I didn’t answer. Because, the truth was, I didn’t. But fuck . . . I’d decided to stay away, and now she was lying in my arms with my cum inside her. I was clearly shit at keeping my word.
“Jasper?” Hallie asked, and lifted up, resting her forearms on my chest so she could see my face. The hope I saw in her expression fucking felled me.
How much have you told her? Forrest’s words circled my head. She’s a twenty-five-year-old woman, she can decide for herself.
I ran my fingertip over her dark, perfectly manicured eyebrows, down over her high cheekbones, over a spattering of freckles on her nose, then to her full lip with a perfect bow.
Fuck, I had to leave. I did. But as I lay here right now, I couldn’t think of a single reason why I had to go. If I stayed on the tour, we could have this. Every night. I could have her exactly like this. But that was my selfishness talking.
The angel and devil on my shoulder argued, and I couldn’t fucking take it.
“Come on,” I said, needing to move, and lifted her off the bed. I kept her in my arms as I walked us to the bathroom. Setting Hallie down on a chaise longue that sat in the center of the large bathroom suite, I walked to the huge, jetted bath and turned on the taps. Without looking back, I poured oils into the water and watched the vanilla-and-amber-scented steam cloud and billow upward. When I turned around, Hallie was stretched out on the chaise, watching me. She had a slight crease between her eyebrows, and I knew it was because I hadn’t answered her.
I bent down and lifted her in my arms. I went to move to the bath when Hallie’s hands cradled my face and she stopped me in my tracks. Her bright eyes searched every inch of my face, and she asked, “What’s holding you back, baby?”
The “baby” almost had me dropping to the floor and vowing I wasn’t going anywhere. I pressed a long kiss to her forehead, then lowered Hallie into the water, switching on the jets. I went to sit on the ledge, when she grasped hold of my hand and said, “Join me.”
Unable to say no to this woman, I climbed into the bath, slipping behind her. I pulled her against me, her back to my chest. Hallie sighed as she laid her head on my shoulder. I lifted my foot when the bath was full and turned off the tap with my toe.
Steam licked at our skin and the jets massaged our muscles. I ran my fingers up and down Hallie’s arms until at last, she said, “Jasper?” I knew she wanted answers. I felt a boulder in my chest when I thought of all I kept inside. I had kept too much to myself for so long that it felt too heavy to endure. I had taken on the burden as leader of my family . . . and I was so fucking tired of shouldering all the weight. Grief of my father still pressed on my chest, of Genny, of all the businesses, the threats . . . I was fucking drowning.
Hallie turned until she met my eyes. One glance at her had all my high walls falling, and Hallie was stepping straight over the rubble. I closed my eyes, then ran my hand down my face. “I’m trying to protect you,” I finally confessed.
Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion. She shook her head. “I don’t understand. How and why are you protecting me? From what?”
A lump built in my throat at the question. My father’s face drifted into my mind, then the crash site and my father’s dead body on the ground before me. My hero . . . my favorite person, broken before me.
“What do you mean there’s been a crash?” I said into the phone. I grabbed my car keys and ran out the door. I’d been in a meeting that had run far too late. It was cold and wet and freezing outside, the rain lashing down in torrents. We were in the thick of winter, and the weather was harsh and unforgiving.