Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Cade sighs heavily, casting his eyes up to the ceiling like he's searching for a little patience.
"This isn't about me being stubborn, Cade," I whisper, reaching up to touch his face. His gaze falls back to mine. "If we're going to make this work, we have to be partners. You have to let me do my part and discuss things with me before you do them. I love that you want to keep me safe, but I've been on my own for a long time. You can't just sweep in and take over. That's not fair to either of us."
He searches my face for a long moment, then turns on his heel and stalks across the living room. "Stay right there," he orders before disappearing into my bedroom.
I stare after him for a moment, then shake my head and sit on the couch. He's so frustrating sometimes. Trying to get inside his head and figure out what he's thinking is all but impossible. He's so used to being in charge that he barks orders like a drill sergeant, fully expecting to be obeyed.
Even as a kid, he was a little alpha. I loved that about him then and love it as much now, but I've never been great at blind obedience. I'm not one of the gang members he's used to dealing with. I'll never just lay down and let him bulldoze over me.
"I need you to let me say what I need to say before you respond," he says, coming back into the living room with a sheaf of papers in his hands. He strides toward me and drops them on the couch. Before I can reach for them, he lifts me into his arms and sits back down with me in his lap. The tension in his expression and in the set of his shoulders leeches away as if having me in his arms soothes him just like being in them eases me.
As soon as he touches me, I feel better. Stronger. Like whatever he's hiding from me isn't so bad and we can make it through unscathed. Except that little voice of doubt keeps niggling, whispering that I need to look before I leap, or we'll both end up shattered into pieces all over again.
"I never knew my mom's parents," he says when I don't say anything. "From what I know, they weren't great parents. They treated her like a possession and expected her to be exactly who they wanted her to be. She didn't agree, so she ran away the minute she turned eighteen. She had me a little over a year later. Even after my dad ran out on us, she never looked back."
I run a hand through his hair and cuddle up against his chest, trying to comfort him. I never got to know my dad. He took off on my mom when I was just a baby, but I never spent much time thinking about him. If he wanted to be a part of my life, he had plenty of opportunities. Listening to Cade talk about his family makes my heart hurt for him, though. His dad left him, and then he lost his mom. He was so young. It really isn't fair.
"Her parents died when I was little," he says, rubbing my back. "I never met them. But Ma Lucia knew them. She was my mom's nanny when my mom was a little girl. She practically raised my mom because mom's parents—my grandparents—were too busy with their own lives to spare much attention to the baby they brought into this world."
"I'm sorry," I whisper and press a kiss to his chest.
"When my mom died, someone contacted Ma Lucia after they couldn't find my dad. I guess it was in my mom's will that I should be given into her care if anything ever happened. Ma Lucia picked me up at the group home a couple of weeks after the accident. She told me about my grandparents and how they treated my mom. She told me they died when I was little." He takes a deep breath. "She didn't tell me they were rich."
I tip my head back to look up at his face. He's pale, his eyes haunted. His face is pinched, his lips compressed into a thin line like he's trying not to throw up.
"I didn't know about any of that when we were growing up, January. I just knew my mom was dead, and Ma Lucia was my family. That you and Titan were my family."
"Of course we were your family," I whisper to him, trying to ease his mind and erase the pained expression on his face. I focus on him and only on him, pushing all those emotions trying to break to the surface back down into the little box where they belong.