Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Your lip isn’t needed, so stow it away when I want your mouth, and you haven’t just sucked my soul out of my dick,” he said, smoothing the hand that’d just inflicted the damage over my ass to soothe instead of maim this time.
I reached back and pinched him, and he chuckled.
“What?” he asked innocently.
“You know what, dammit,” I pinched him again.
He sighed and ran his hand down my backside, up and down, side to side.
The motion was so soothing that I found my eyes becoming heavy even when I didn’t want them to be.
Wolf finally slipped free of my sex, and I gasped at the feeling of loss.
“Wolf,” I whined.
“You never told me about why you and your brother don’t get along,” he pushed. “Honey, I need to know. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that something happened. If he hurt you, I need to know. My instincts are telling me he’s solid and that he really wants a relationship with you, but I don’t want to continue to put my support at his back if he’s hurt you in some way.”
I sighed and returned my head back to his shoulder.
“He left me,” I whispered into his neck, remembering the pain like it was yesterday. “He was the only constant in life; I relied on him for everything. He kept me sane, protected me against the assholes that were in the foster home with me. Then one day he was just gone, and I was left with no one. My life turned to shit after that, and I blamed him for it. I think I still do, as a matter of fact.”
“You don’t hate him,” Wolf said into my hair. “You’re upset, and understandably so. But in your heart, you knew.”
“I knew what?” I asked stubbornly.
“Why he left.”
I did know.
“They told him he had to go. They said he couldn’t take me, and if he tried, they’d send him to jail,” I whispered into the darkness. “But I didn’t expect him to just completely disappear from my life like that. I expected him to move out, find a job, and stay close by. I never thought he’d just leave me behind and never look back.”
“I overheard him saying that he tried to find a job and couldn’t. Nobody would hire him because he was the son of someone nobody liked,” Wolf replied softly.
“His father wasn’t my father. Apparently, his was a loser who scammed about two hundred people out of their life savings before he was caught,” I sighed. “Nobody liked him. They barely even tolerated me.”
“So you know why he left,” Wolf said gently.
I shrugged.
“Rationally, I do,” I said. “But it doesn’t change how I feel. I can’t control the way I feel.”
Wolf started to run his fingers through my hair, and my traitorous body yielded to him and his ministrations.
“Each time he came home, he came to see me, but I refused,” I pursed my lips. “I was—and still am—stubborn as hell. It hurt…still hurts.”
He snorted. “I could’ve told you that.”
I nipped at his beard and pulled, causing him to laugh.
“Ouch!” He pulled back. “You billy-goated me!”
“Why do you think I did it?” I asked him. “And you just quoted a Ryan Reynolds movie.”
“Hmmm,” he said. “You’re going to give your brother a chance to explain. You’re going to give him the time he deserves.”
“And how do you know that?” I asked.
“Because you wouldn’t be the woman I fell in love with if you didn’t.”
He was right. I would give Raphael the time. Eventually. Maybe tomorrow or the next day.
Whatever.
I’d do it. I may not be happy about it, but I’d do it.
It was going to be hard for Raphael to bridge this gap between us. I was so hurt, I still am, but Wolf was right, I’d give him the chance to explain.
Because, from what I’d heard Wolf explaining tonight, he’d offered up quite a bit of information about the situation Wolf and I were in.
He’d also given me my dog.
A dog who’d been a great friend since the moment I’d found him. A dog who was trained to protect me, and that wasn’t cheap.
My brother, in his own way, had done what he could to watch over me even when I’d refused any contact with and all help from him.
And I found that I quite liked that. Even though I shut him out, he still found a way to try to be there for me. He didn’t give up.
My mind raced as my body calmed.
Chapter 20
Why is life so much like a game of Monopoly? Nobody ever reads the rules until a fight breaks out.
-Fact of life
Wolf
Sated and comfortable for the first time in twelve straight hours, I closed my eyes and pulled my woman closer into my chest.
My hand went to my name that had a new permanent home on Raven’s hip, and a surge of pure possessiveness spread through me once again.