Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 109640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
For fuck’s sake, he couldn’t.
He knew now he couldn’t save the world. Determination and grit were not enough.
He’d also done the love and marriage thing and learned a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget. He jumped in with two feet and ended up crawling back out on skinned hands and knees.
But he needed to consider one other thing… He couldn’t have any more children.
Some divorcées took what they considered the “easy” route and started fresh by creating a whole new family and ruthlessly discarding the old.
He couldn’t and wouldn’t ever do that.
Despite the resistance from Dylan and Chloé, he would keep chipping away at them until they were back to loving him the same way he did them and the same way as when they were young. Before they’d been told lies. He wouldn’t give up until they wanted to spend time with him by choice and not only when it was forced.
His children were the two most important humans in his life. Always would be. He would not and could not let them go. He would fight like hell for them both until nothing was left to fight for.
Any woman in his life would need to accept the fact his kids would always come first. Always.
He stared at Cami through the closed driver’s side window as she waited only about a foot away.
That woman was also the type to never give up. She would fight for what she wanted. She would do whatever was needed to be done to protect the people she loved.
With that intense love and passion, she would make a great mother one day. If she wanted that. And if she did, he couldn’t be the one to give it to her.
For that reason alone, he shouldn’t be here. Because, while he denied that any kind of connection existed between them… one did.
He feared that every time he came over here, every time he ended up in her bed, it would only get stronger.
Only get more intense.
In the end, he did not want to do to her what Sasha did to him, even if unintentionally. To save her from that, he needed to make excuses and get the fuck out of there.
When he rolled down the window, she spoke before he could. “I could see the whites of your eyes all the way from the house. Why are you so damn scared?”
For fuck’s sake. “You’re seeing things. I’m not scared.”
“Yes, you are. There’s nothing to be afraid of, Crew.”
She was so damn wrong.
“I don’t bite,” she teased.
Untrue. You’ve somehow sank your teeth so deeply into me, I can no longer escape without it tearing me apart.
He squeezed his eyes shut at that realization. Jesus fucking Christ. He couldn’t escape. It might already be too late.
To prove her wrong about being afraid, he powered up his window and exited the car.
Before she could step back, he shot his hand out to grab her by the back of the neck. He swung her around and pinned her against the driver’s door using his body from hips to chest.
When her head tipped up as his tipped down, he searched her shadowed eyes.
He couldn’t see their color, but he knew what they were. He could picture every shade—from dark brown to light—the color of every fleck and the outer black ring around the iris. He knew this because he’d stared into them every time she challenged him. As well as every time they’d had sex.
“Why do you drive me so fucking crazy?” slipped from him. He hated to admit that, but it was true.
“Are you sure you didn’t drive yourself there?”
His fingertips dug harder into her neck. “Fuck no. It’s all you.”
Since she was wearing a form-fitting camisole, her shoulders were bare even though the night breeze had a slight chill. She jerked one slightly in a half-shrug. “You could leave.”
Like it was that simple.
“I could,” he agreed, even though that was a damn lie.
“But you won’t.”
Goddamn it.
The confidence she exuded was nothing but a turn-on for him. It wasn’t cockiness, it was pure strength.
He hoped she never lost that, or no one dared attempt to destroy it. But if someone tried, he knew she would fight tooth and nail to keep it.
Right then and there, the truth slammed him in the chest like a battering ram.
She was the woman he had hoped Sasha would be. One able to handle who he was. How he was. Even what he was.
At the time, he’d thought Sasha was “the one.” He now knew he was so fucking wrong.
It wasn’t Sasha.
Hell no.
It was Camila Cabrera.
He’d been so goddamn blind.
He’d been looking for a kitten when he should’ve been looking for a tigress.
Her, “Are we going to stand out here all night?” brought him back to the moment.
The moment.
This turning point.
But he needed to be truthful with her. To tell her they had no future if she wanted anything more than only him. Because that was all he could give her.