Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
I hadn’t risen from my chair. My legs were still lead. “He hung up right when you walked in.”
“Is he in the area?”
“He—he didn’t say.”
“Then why did he hang up?” He pulled up a chair to my desk to sit close to me, the corner of the desk between us.
Because I love you.
Theo’s presence was threatening, as if I was the one who’d done something wrong. He looked at me like I was on trial, when I was the victim of the crime. His eyes seemed darker than usual, storm clouds on a spring day. “What happened?”
“You seem angry.”
“I am angry.”
“But you seem angry at me.”
He continued his hard stare. It was practically pulsing.
“What did I do—”
“Why did you take his call?”
“I didn’t know it was him. It was a blocked number—”
He raised his voice. “Why would you answer a blocked number?”
Now, I raised mine. “Because my clients call on blocked numbers all the time. Rich people are paranoid. You think I wanted to talk to him? What are you trying to imply here, Theo? That I want the man who’s made me so miserable I almost took a bottle full of Vicodin to kill myself?”
The daggers in his eyes immediately withdrew, and he looked away, leaning back in his chair as the ominous clouds from his mood passed and the blue sky returned. After several seconds of avoidance, he looked at me again. “What happened?”
I wanted an apology for the way he acted, but I was so happy he was there that I let it go. “Honestly, it was the same shit. Said he hoped I’d had enough time to cool off…like my flames will ever die.” They burned hotter than the fire that took my home. “Said if I don’t come back to him willingly, it’ll be much worse after he kills you and takes me.”
The threat didn’t make him hesitate. “Don’t let him scare you.”
“I’m not. Just don’t underestimate him.”
His stare was so hard, he had the power to make mountains cower. “I never underestimate anything when it comes to you.”
I looked away to hide the way my insides melted.
“Sweetheart.”
I could only avoid his stare for a couple seconds before I caved.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
With eyes like the dark side of the moon, a confidence higher than an ancient sequoia, his look had the power to give me wings. Even on the happiest day of my marriage with Bolton, I was never as happy with him as I was on my worst day with Theo. This relationship had been so brief and occurred under such strenuous circumstances, but it somehow felt so right. “I don’t want anything to happen to you either.”
“Don’t ever worry about me. It’s not your job.”
“If it’s not my job, then whose is it?”
“Mine.”
“Well, I’d like it to be mine.”
He stared at me for a while before he gave a slight shake of his head. “That’s not how it works, sweetheart. I take care of you—not the other way around.”
“But I want to take care of you.” I wanted to rub his sore muscles when they ached. I wanted to make him soup when he was sick. I wanted to watch him grow old through the decades…and be there every step of the way.
His gaze remained hard as stone, not giving me any entry into the conversation. “Why did he hang up?” What little vulnerability he’d shown in his expression was long gone. He was back to business, back to his coldness.
I felt the jolt of terror at the question. I was blinded by the flashlight he pointed at my eyes. “I told him to fuck off.”
“And that was all it took? Then you should have said that at the beginning.”
I did.
His eyes were never kind like Axel’s. They were fierce, intelligent, sharp. Even in our most intimate conversations, he rarely showed warmth. His eyes didn’t soften at my compliments. He seemed to always be on guard, even with me. “I’ve never lied to you.”
I knew he smelled my bullshit—and called me out on it.
“At least by choice.” He didn’t ask the question again verbally, but his eyes continued to dig into my flesh like a shovel. “So, are you lying to me willingly or because you think you don’t have a choice?”
There was no escape. My eyes shifted away to avoid his angry stare.
“Look at me.”
My arms crossed over my chest.
“I won’t ask again.”
“Theo—”
His hand went to my chin, and he turned my gaze on him. His fingers were as gentle as a bee landing on a flower. He didn’t yank my face toward him, just gently guided it until it was where he wanted. “There.” His arm rested on the desk between us, and his stare burned into mine with such hostility and more heat than the surface of the sun. “Now, answer my question.”