Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I exhaled sharply, not in the mood to go back and forth with him. “Please just tell me. I won’t be hurt or upset or broken. I would just like to know if that’s what first drew you to me. Was it the memory of Turi?”
“What are you talking about? You don’t look anything like Turi, other than you both have brown hair and dark eyes. But that’s where the similarity ends. I don’t even know where Lucien was getting that. Have you seen a picture of him? Of Turi?”
I nodded.
“And you think you look like him?”
“Everyone around here does.”
“No, that’s—that’s all just superficial bullshit. I’m sorry Lucien even brought that up to you. No matter what else happens between us, don’t think that. Don’t ever think that.”
“Okay.”
“I have never once looked at you and thought, I get a second chance with Turi. That wasn’t it. And I wish he hadn’t done what he did, but we were never riding off into the sunset together anyway. He knew that.”
“Because your parents threatened that they wouldn’t send you to school if you came out as bi and—”
“No. Did Lucien tell you that?”
“Your sister too.”
“Absolutely not,” he assured me. “I didn’t need my parents to send me to school. I had my trust fund that my grandparents set up for that. I ended it with Turi because that was high school, and I was going off to college. That’s all it was, and I was never anything but honest with him about that.”
Holy. Crap. “So everyone got it wrong.”
“Apparently so from what you’re telling me,” he said, sounding exhausted.
“How come you never told me any of this?”
He shrugged. “Why? The past is the past. You have to live in the present.”
I tipped my head and looked at him. “I’m sorry about Turi.”
Quick nod from him. “It was a long time ago.”
“Thank you for answering.”
“You’re welcome,” he said kindly, then returned to Celia.
Cord was back, hovering over me, and I leaned my head back and stared at him.
“Why’re you looking at me like that?” he muttered.
“Because I kind of like you. Why don’t you hold my hand,” I suggested.
“I should go over there and explain to Breckin’s family that he cheated on you, and that’s why they have a grandchild on the way.”
I grunted.
“He’s a piece of shit, and because of him, you were almost fuckin’ killed!”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
“What’s another way to look at it?”
I shrugged. “Breckin cheated, showing me the kind of man he really is, and because of that, I finally realized that the right guy was here for me the whole time.”
Moving quickly, he crouched down beside me, took my face in his hands, and kissed me long and hard. I wrapped my hands around his wrists, and when he finally eased back, my eyes drifted open, and I smiled at him.
“You freaking out yet?” he asked me.
“About us?”
“No,” he said irritably. “Why would you be freaking out about that?”
Giving him something new to worry about was not a good idea. “I wouldn’t be.”
“Then why would you—”
“What were you going to ask?”
“Well, I was thinking that almost getting shot might have given you a slight scare.”
I chuckled because his voice could not have been dripping with any more sarcasm if he tried. “No, not me, I’m a rock.”
“Is that right,” he said drolly.
“I am,” I insisted, noticing how focused on me he was. “I swear.”
He didn’t seem convinced.
“I promise.”
“Okay, fine. But after this, after we talk to the police, and after I talk to my captain again, you’re going back to the motel. I’ll go get our stuff from the Alcotts’. We’re not going back there.”
“That sounds good,” I admitted.
He drew me close, and the solid strength of him grounded me. I was working really hard not to lose it, but as my adrenaline waned, I started to shake. What I wanted was to sit in his lap, but I burrowed against him instead.
As Cord mandated, I didn’t go back to the Alcotts’ house. Three hours later, he drove me to the motel, and though I was barely coherent, Cord put me in the shower. He brought me a large bottle of water, and I hydrated some more, despite drinking what seemed like a gallon at the hospital. And then I collapsed in bed, fell asleep with my head on Cord’s chest as he talked on the phone.
I woke up because my phone was buzzing. I answered it blindly.
“Hello?”
“I know you are fine, but how do you feel?”
Dimah.
“Okay,” I told him.
“Good.”
“I should be home tomorrow, so I’ll be at work the day after. What’s today?”
“It is Thursday, but do not worry. You will be back when you are ready.”
Something occurred to me, even as fuzzy as I was. “How’d you know I was fine?”
“Danya told me.”
I coughed. “You sent him here to watch over me?”