Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“You really need to do that.”
“As far as a career, I haven’t figured that out yet, except that I want to feel like I’m contributing to society and doing something good for a change. I want to give you a reason to be proud of me, and I want to be proud of myself, instead of feeling ashamed all the time.”
I brushed his hair back and asked, “Is that why you didn’t tell me about your past? Because you were ashamed of it?”
“That’s a big part of it.” There was so much vulnerability in his eyes when he said, “I really liked you, right from the start, and I was worried you’d instantly reject me if you knew I was a criminal. But I thought maybe if you got to know me, you’d see the kind of man I was deep down, instead of only seeing what I’d done.”
“You’re a good person, Tory. I’ve always known that. And after that conversation with your uncle, I totally understand how you ended up where you did.”
“I should have told you sooner. The longer I waited, the harder it became because I was afraid of losing you. But I really was going to tell you everything the day we got caught. I couldn’t double down on my dishonesty by lying to your family. Even when our plans to meet them for dinner changed, I was still going to tell you, because I knew I had to come clean.”
“I believe you.”
After a moment, he said, “I never imagined Ashcroft’s men would trace me through my relatives in San Francisco. I wouldn’t have taken you to meet them if I’d had any idea I was putting you in danger.”
“I know. There was no way you could have predicted that.”
“I really believed I’d covered my tracks. Right after I met you, I went to Dante for help. He got me a fake I.D. and rented a car and a flat for me, so there were no paper trails for Ashcroft to follow. I didn’t think I was putting you in danger by being around you, and I’m so sorry you got caught up in this.”
“You don’t need to keep apologizing to me,” I said. “And even if I’d known everything right from the beginning, including the fact that this might happen, I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I still would have chosen to be with you, Tory.”
He rested his forehead against mine and whispered, “You don’t know how much I needed to hear that.”
Eventually we rolled out of bed, showered, and got dressed. He put on the same tank top and shorts from the night before, and then he retrieved his overnight bag from wherever he’d stashed it and moved it to my room. Both of us had had enough of being apart.
We made it downstairs in time for lunch. After we filled our plates, I suggested eating on the patio. He followed me down the hall and out a side door, and once we were seated he tilted his face toward the sunlight. “This is the first time I’ve been outside in days,” he murmured.
“You have to take better care of yourself and stop with the sixteen-hour days,” I said. “You’ll wear yourself out.”
He glanced at me and smirked. “Ironic, coming from you.”
“I’ve gotten a lot better about cutting back my hours,” I said. “And this is different anyway. You’re in an incredibly high-pressure situation, so you need to be extra careful not to run yourself down.”
“I have to get us out of here, though.”
“You are, but I’d prefer spending a few extra days here to you collapsing from exhaustion.”
After we finished eating, I accompanied him to the studio. He retrieved his glasses from a side table and indicated the canvas. “What do you think?”
“It’s amazing. I’m surprised by how much progress you’ve made in just a few days.” The entire background was completed, and he’d started on the table with the spilled bowl of fruit.
“It’s fortunate that he wanted a Cezanne. This style comes easily to me.”
He started organizing his brushes, so I asked, “Should I go? Whenever I came in here while you were working, it seemed like I was distracting you.”
Tory stopped what he was doing and rested his hands on my shoulders. “You wouldn’t be a distraction, but it’d be boring to watch me paint. You should go do whatever you want.”
When I said, “I want to be wherever you are,” his face lit up in a gorgeous smile.
I opened a few windows to let in some fresh air, and then I curled up on the couch. He was wrong about it being boring. Just the opposite—I found it fascinating.
This was a very different Tory than the man I was used to. He was usually so polished and perfectly put together. Now he was barefoot and dressed in a form-fitting tank top and baggy basketball shorts. His thick, dark hair was unruly, and his usually very short beard had grown out a bit, which gave him a rugged appearance. He was sexy in a suit, but he was even sexier like this.