Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“Of course it’s not. It’s possession, but that’s how the narcissist views love. Throw in probably watching too many epic love stories, and she’s built you up in her mind as some god of a man.”
“She doesn’t know me. Not the way you do.”
“You asked her to marry you, Kyle. How long was the relationship before you did that?” She wanted to know, and this wasn’t in the hacked files she’d managed to obtain.
“We worked together off and on for about six months before we formed a team. And then it was very quick,” he admitted. “We slept together the first night we were sent on an assignment by ourselves. I asked her to marry me six weeks after we were placed on a permanent team together. I knew fairly quickly that it was a mistake. We spent most of our time fighting. That was part of the attraction in the beginning.”
She held a hand up. “I don’t need the whole story. I was curious. You took so much time before you would even sleep with me. It makes sense. I was the opposite of her. She pointed that out to me, too.”
“I did not fall in love with you because you were her opposite. I fell in love with you because you’re half my damn soul, Mae. When I met her I was in a bad place.”
“I’m pretty sure the same can be said of meeting me.”
“It’s not the same at all. Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me. Meeting you made me want to live again. The only reason I came home last year was to spend some time with my family while the Agency forced me to take time off. I was going to do my time and then rejoin Drake, and I wasn’t coming back again. I was going to work until it killed me, and you changed that.”
It was an easy thing for him to say. Words meant little to her. His actions had proven the truth. “You walked away from me very quickly. Look, I don’t want to talk about this. I’m tired and disappointed because I thought I was finally getting some freedom back and now it’s gone again. It could be months before I get out of this freaking club. I used to love it here. Now all I see are walls to my cage, and all I feel is how deeply stupid I’ve been.”
“You weren’t stupid.” He set the beer down and moved around the bar. “Baby, you didn’t do anything wrong. I reacted poorly. My only thought was to get as far away from you as possible. I know how Julia works. I needed her to understand I wasn’t going to bring you into this. I thought I could buy myself some time to kill her and make sure you were safe.”
“But you intended to leave me. You intended to never see me again. You faked your own death in a way that could have led to your actual death. You didn’t talk to me or leave me a nice note explaining the situation and asking me to stay safe and wait for you.” In so many ways she was glad he hadn’t because she knew what would have happened. “I would have done it. I would have patiently waited and not given any trouble to the people guarding me. If you’d wanted me to go into hiding, I would have gone and never argued. I wouldn’t have trained or changed my lifestyle in any way. I would have forgotten everything that woman told me.”
“I don’t think you should believe anything Julia says,” Kyle pointed out.
“But she told me the truth. The truth about myself. The truth about you.” She took another sip of her drink and turned to Kyle, feeling so much older than she had this morning. This morning she’d been halfway excited about the week. She’d been ready to start game nights again, ready to go out for a girls night with Noelle and Maddie. Oh, they would have had to drag a couple of bodyguards with them, but she could have felt halfway normal.
She thought she might be able to get a piece of herself back, some tiny spark she might be able to grow into a flame.
Then Kyle had come back and she’d killed a man, and now she was fairly certain Kyle was going to try to ship her off somewhere and she was so fucking tired. Tired of the awful juxtaposition her life had become. Months of boredom broken up by moments of complete terror.
She kind of wanted the fight so it could all be over, and she or Julia would be dead and they could all get on with their lives.
He moved into her space, looming over her because he had a foot on her and despite the muscle she’d put on, he still had at least seventy-five pounds more of it. How big and strong he was had been part of his appeal. He’d found a beautiful balance between protective and funny. Between making her feel safe and bringing a spark to her world that made her feel alive.