Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
“That’s not really what you believe, though, is it?”
His fingers threaded through mine.
Fire flashed.
“Can feel you aching for a home.” He gruffed it like a claim.
My soul fluttered. “But this is your home, Milo. I’m just pretending like it’s mine. But I’m here for you…as your friend…as long as you need me to be.”
Friend.
I was an idiot.
It wasn’t close to what I felt.
And I was never so certain than right then that I was going to get my heart slaughtered.
“We just need to be careful with their hearts…and I think…” I glanced away, then back to him, shifting a fraction to face him. “I think maybe we should plan that I remain in their lives in some way. I can be their crazy Aunt Tessa, just like I am for Gage and Juni. Once you’ve gotten custody and they’re settled, we tell them we decided you and I are better off as friends.”
He lifted his back from the wall. The man overpowered the space. I could barely breathe.
“You’d do that for me?” The words were low and grumbly.
I liked them far too much, and I had to keep myself from shouting I’d probably give him anything.
“For us? Stay in their lives permanently?” he added.
“Just try to get rid of me.” I forced a wobbly tease. “Once I claim you, you’re pretty much stuck with me.”
“You claimin’ me, Little Dove?” His voice was gruff, and it was making me all kinds of tingly.
“I just might, Milo. I mean, because you’re my friend.”
Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you feel something different, too.
His eyes caressed over my face. I got the sense he might be counting every freckle.
A needy sound crawled out from my spirit.
“A friend?” He scoffed, like it was an insult. “You’re the light, Tessa. The goodness I’d never expected. You have any idea what I see when I look at you?”
Could he ever see me the way I saw him? Because every day I spent in his house, the harder it got to pretend like I didn’t want more.
Harder to pretend there wasn’t something that burned between us.
Harder to pin on faked smiles and easy laughter when what I felt wasn’t close to being light.
Not when the man made me want to fly.
We’d both somehow come to sitting fully upright, our legs drawn up so we were facing each other.
Hope lit in the space between us.
A warm, flickering glow.
“I think we kick this plan into gear on Sunday. You come with me to my visitation. Then I’ll talk to my attorney this week to schedule an appointment so we can set things in motion. Are you ready for that?”
“Absolutely,” I promised, because right then, all the concerns and questions I’d had with the girls didn’t seem so important.
We’d figured this out.
Together.
I squeezed his hand tight. “We’ve got this, Milo. We’re a great team.”
A smile tweaked the edge of his distractingly sexy mouth. “Nobody else I’d want to do it with.”
My stomach took a swooping dive.
“I know I’m great and all.” I pinned on a bright smile, and crap, his big palm came up to cup the side of my face. He ran his thumb along my jaw.
My belly twisted with want, and a needy throb pounded between my thighs.
Oh, this man made me feel things I’d never felt before.
“That you are, Little Dove.”
Intensity blazed in the space, a pull tugging between us.
I swallowed down the arousal and pushed myself to broach the topic I really didn’t want to broach. “I think we might have another problem,” I rushed like maybe we could skip right over it.
His entire demeanor darkened. A black storm gathering on the horizon.
Nope.
No skipping for Milo.
“What’s that?”
I attempted to hide it, but fear made a rebound, and a shiver raced down my spine. The confession shook when I set it free. “Karl came to my work tonight.”
Fury flashed through Milo’s face, and every muscle in his body flexed.
The hand on my cheek curled in protection.
Beautiful Beast.
“Did he hurt you?” It was nothing less than a growl.
Frantically, I shook my head. “No. But he threatened us. He saw the ring, and he thinks there was something going on with us when he and I were still together. His ego took a hit, and I don’t think he’s going to let it slide. He warned about pressing charges against you for assault, but I told him if he did, I’d press charges, too. I’m not sure it’s enough to keep him from taking action, though.”
Any upstanding judge would never rule in his favor.
But Karl had connections.
He would twist and manipulate.
Make himself look like the victim in the situation.
Worry fluttered through my being.
He gripped me by both sides of the face.
Powerful.
Fierce.
Pure, bottled mayhem.
I sucked in a shallow breath as every cell in my body came alive and leaned in his direction.