Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
And he didn’t. Not with how much time he’d spent at home with me. I would think the type of person that liked to go to clubs—and owned one—he would actually like to spend time there.
He wouldn’t run for hours and hours at a time. And spend even longer staring at his dog that was inside someone else’s fence.
But Baylor wasn’t like other men. He was caring and smart, but he was quiet. Subdued. He didn’t like the big hubbub of nightlife.
He was like me...wasn’t he?
And that was when the doubt started to set in.
Why would a club owner, a man that had a lot of money, want to have anything to do with me?
I was a nobody. Nothing.
I had a shit ton of problems and nothing to show for it.
“After I was hit by that drunk driver, I was given hush money.” He continued, not seeing the turmoil he’d caused. “Millions. I have millions that I invested wisely and turned into more millions.”
Sal had money too. I had convinced myself that the only reason he and his family worked was because they liked having the mantle of power being a police officer afforded.
But that didn't mean that they didn't use the money they had to their advantage.
I started to hyperventilate. Had I been wrong about Baylor?
“I’d spend every fucking penny to make sure you were safe,” Baylor continued. “I’d go bankrupt. Sell my goddamn kidney if that was what was needed to keep you safe.”
“I don’t want you to sell your kidney,” I told him. “God gave you two for a reason.”
It was ridiculous to fixate on the kidney, but I couldn’t focus on the larger picture. Not and continue to stand.
He laughed. The sound vibrated his chest, which in turn could be felt throughout my entire upper half since he was plastered to me.
“I’ll make it okay,” he promised.
This time his eyes held mine, and suddenly, I believed him.
“I don’t want to marry you because you are trying to save me,” I told him. “I want to marry you because you love me. Because you can’t live without me.”
“Lark?”
My eyes returned to his. I hadn’t even realized I’d looked away.
“Yeah?”
“I can’t.”
My brows furrowed. “You can’t, what?”
“I can’t live without you.”
I would’ve laughed had I not read the sincerity in his eyes.
“You don’t even know me…not really. We’ve known each other for a very short period of time. What if we do this and you find out you don’t like me?” I looked away. “I’m a nobody. Nothing. I have a college degree. In art. I am a certified phlebotomist. I have three jobs that I work part-time. I don’t own anything. I have fat thighs, and sometimes I can’t find the energy to get out of bed. And when I’m on my period, I can be a real, raving bitch.”
His mouth twitched.
“This is not funny.”
“Are you through?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glared. “Yes.”
He moved away from me and walked toward the door, peering out into the hallway before closing it. Then locking it.
My brows shot up.
“What are you…”
He was on me in a moment.
His mouth touched mine. His hands went around my back and pulled me in close, and then he was staring directly into my eyes.
His gaze was so intense that it was almost hard to look back at him.
“I run because I can’t sleep,” he said. “I have PTSD that flares up when fireworks go off. I always have to sit with the wall at my back. If I see a fucking plastic bag or a goddamn piece of trash on the side of the road big enough, my mind automatically goes into ‘oh, fuck’ mode.” He banded his arm behind my back and pulled me even closer so that we were now touching from chest to knee. “When it rains, everything fucking hurts. That’s also why I run. If I don’t, I get so stiff and sore that I’m impossible to be around. That happens every single time it rains. And when I’m hurt, I’m an asshole, I’ll just tell you that now.”
My lips twitched.
“My family is certifiably whacko and highly fucked up,” he continued. “Dante has a family that he’s refusing to think about. Travis has a business that he’s running and wants me to go in with him, but I don’t want to because I can’t stand the thought of doing what he does. Reed has a crush on his ex-girlfriend and has since he was a teenager and old enough to get a hard-on.”
I laughed softly under my breath. “Then there’s Tobias and Finley, who live so far away from us that my mother can’t stand it. She never misses an opportunity to remind us that we were the ones who pushed them so far away—which we really didn’t. It was one fucking argument about how he was always up my mother’s ass, paired with some other shit that is a long fucking story, so Tobias decided to send a big f-u to us and went to live where Finley was. Finley has a daughter that my mother never gets to see, and while we’re on that subject, my mother will never miss an opportunity to tell you that she wants more grandkids. Now.”