Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Gorgeous, sexy, hurt TJ. He’d been perfectly sweet the whole flight, not coming back and trying to force her to his side the way she’d worried he would.
Maybe he was starting to come down from all the adrenaline of the last few days and realizing what a horrible mistake they’d made.
“Lou, Dare and I are going to stay with Mom and Dad. Put TJ in my room.” Tasha stepped into the hallway. She’d changed into PJs but had her sneakers and a hoodie on.
“It’s two in the morning, Tash. You don’t have to do that.” It had been a long flight, and they would feel that jet-lag for days. Weariness threatened to swamp Lou, and she still had to deal with the man currently sitting in her kitchen.
He wouldn’t even go home to grab some things. He’d merely gotten in the car with her and promised he would stop by his parents’ place sometime tomorrow. He’d told her he had the only important thing.
A SIG. But then she could have told him her place was a veritable weapons’ cache.
“We were planning on staying there anyway. His siblings are coming down in a couple of days, and Mom and Dad have way more room. Dare is outside waiting for me,” Tasha explained. “I think he’s been up most of the time I’ve been gone. It’s the first time I’ve gotten called away on short notice. I need to make sure he’s handling it okay. He’s been staying with Mom and Travis, and he signed the paperwork on the condo so we’ll be moving soon anyway. Let TJ stay in my room. He’ll be more comfortable there.” Tasha looked her over. “Do you know what you’re doing with him?”
“Nope.” She was honest with the Taggart sisters. Always. There were no prevarications between them.
Tasha nodded like she understood. “Then go with your instincts, Lou. Not your fears. You live in your head half the time. I know you’ve been dating recently, and you don’t have to stop, but you could maybe see what a casual relationship with him would be like.”
She clutched the sheets to her chest, though it looked like she wouldn’t be using them. “I don’t think anything between me and TJ is casual. At least not for me.”
Tasha settled her backpack on her shoulder. “I don’t think it is for him either. Otherwise he wouldn’t have plotted with Kala to ensure you found a man who was worthy of you. I know I’m not supposed to talk about that…”
“She told me,” Lou interrupted. “Apparently he’s been doing this weird stalker thing for years.”
Tasha studied her carefully. “And how does that make you feel?”
She knew how it should make her feel. Violated. Annoyed. Disturbed.
But she’d been in this family long enough to know that protection instinct was hard wired into their systems. She’d thought about it on the long flight over. TJ had stepped in when she was in trouble, when someone was going to hurt her. It might not have been right for him to do it behind her back, but then she hadn’t exactly told him she’d gone into the system at school and changed his Algebra final from a 55 to 68, just enough so he passed the semester and graduated with his class.
She’d only told Kala that she routinely hacked the system to make sure TJ was okay. She’d never once mentioned it to TJ.
So maybe she was a stalker, too.
She damn straight would have fixed things for him if he’d gotten terrible assignments in the military. If he was being sent off to some place he wouldn’t want to go, she likely would have stepped in, applied pressure here or there, and gotten him somewhere he would enjoy.
“Weirdly protected,” she admitted.
Tasha smiled and stepped around her. “I know it’s scary and it feels like you’ve got a lot to lose, but you don’t. You understand that if it doesn’t work, it’s not like we’re going to kick you out of the club. Him either. We’re family, and we’ll find a way to make it work even if it’s awkward. The truth of the matter is when you genuinely love someone, you can get through anything, even heartache.”
She hadn’t even thought about that. If there was one thing she was secure in, it was this group she had around her. That was why she’d been worried when Zach had called TJ into the cockpit. Zach could be protective, too.
“I think we’re going to try playing at the club this weekend. Neither of us has a play partner.”
“Oh, my mom is going to find that endlessly interesting,” Tasha said with a grin.
Lou was sure she would. Charlotte Taggart believed in using D/s as a way to ease into a relationship when things were weird between two people.
Was that what she was doing? Or was she trying to have some time with him before he came to his senses?