Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 129756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 649(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
The Mercury enforcer held up a hand and added, “I’m not saying you should, nor am I trying to push you. If you want to take it one day at a time, fine. But that might change, so I’m going to share with you the advice that Nick gave me. He said that if I wanted to imprint on Harley, I’d have to drop all my protective walls and give her all of me, said I’d have to be sure I could do that before I demanded anything from her or gave her any promises.”
Which couldn’t possibly be as simple as it sounded. “Was it hard?”
“Damn right, it was. I didn’t think I’d struggle so much to open up to her. I didn’t even realize I was still holding a part of myself back until she almost died right in front of me. In the long run, emotionally protecting myself made her physically vulnerable.”
Pausing, Jesse gave him a searching look. “You’re open in a lot of ways, but you’re closed off in others. If you ever find yourself wanting to imprint on Mila, you can’t give her only the parts you choose to give her. You can’t hide behind walls or masks. You have to expose your vulnerabilities, fears, secrets, and personal pain. She’ll be someone who knows you inside out, and that’s something you have to be comfortable with or an imprinting bond won’t form.
“A partial imprint won’t be enough for your animal or hers, which means both will eventually withdraw from the relationship. Then you’d be forced to end it whether you wanted to or not. In other words, there’s a lot riding on whether you have what it takes to imprint on her.”
At that moment, the song came to an end. But, encouraged by the crowd, Mila quickly launched into another. Pride flooded Dominic at how much raw talent she possessed, watching the dancers react so crazily to her. An instrumental break started, and, like last time, Harley stepped forward with her electric violin.
Charlene appeared and placed two fresh bottles of beer on the table. “Here you go, boys.” She looked down at Dominic, her brow creased. “I haven’t heard from you since you hung up on me the other day. Everything all right?”
“Fine,” he replied, his voice a little curt. He’d originally planned to immediately confront Charlene about her attempts to warn Mila away from him when he got to the club, but she hadn’t been there when he arrived. Looking at her now, he decided to play dumb instead, interested in what she’d say and do.
She glanced at the stage, and her lips thinned. “I don’t need to ask what’s brought you back here. I saw that you were photographed with her recently, so I’m guessing you haven’t given up trying to seduce her yet. She’s wearing someone’s mark, sweetie.”
“I know.” It clearly hadn’t occurred to Charlene that Dominic had been the one to put the mark there. He let his gaze drift back to Mila. It was impossible for him to look away from her for long. He loved watching her, loved knowing he owned that talented creature up there.
“And I see that you’re not going to let the mark bother you.” Charlene huffed. “Well, she’s a fool for turning you down over and over. You don’t think she’s playing some kind of game, do you? Trying to push you into chasing her, which would give her the upper hand?” There was the slightest note of distaste in her voice as she spoke of Mila, and it made his wolf snarl.
“Mila doesn’t play games.”
“I agree she doesn’t seem like someone who would. I just can’t see why she’d reject that pretty face of yours.”
“When she has people warning her that I won’t give her a happily-ever-after, it’s no wonder she didn’t tumble straight into my arms, is it?”
The fox’s eyes flickered.
“Who’s been saying that shit to her?” demanded Jesse.
“People with too much time on their hands,” said Dominic.
Charlene danced her fingertips over his nape. “To be fair to them, you’re not a relationship kind of guy.”
Dominic nudged her hand away from his neck, making her brow pucker. Neither he nor his wolf wanted her touching him. “You once said the same thing about yourself, Charlene. Now you’re mated. People change.”
“Yes, they do,” she said, putting his and Jesse’s empty bottles on her tray. “I keep telling you that you’re too old to be chasing skirts. You should let me set you up with a friend of mine.”
“Don’t need your help, Charlene.”
“You don’t need my help to score, no, but you do need help convincing nice girls that you’re not a player. Pierson’s articles certainly didn’t aid your case. Have you had any more trouble from him?”
He cast her a hard look. “That’s pack business.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine, don’t tell me. At least let me introduce you to my friend.”