Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“With me is where Valeria wants you. Right now, it’s the safest place to be. So you’ll stay with me until you learn to stop running headlong into danger and the people hunting you are either dead or behind bars.”
She hesitated a long moment, and Trees wished like fuck he knew what she was thinking. “What will you do to me once we reach your house?”
“Take you to my dungeon.”
“But—”
“No.” He stopped at a red light and turned to her. “You can’t be surprised. I told you in Mexico to make a choice, easy or hard. You didn’t. The same way you wouldn’t admit you were wet. You were stubbornly mute again when you refused to tell me if your pussy is sore. You’ve run from me. You’ve lied to me. You’ve stabbed me in the back. You’ve put yourself in danger again and again. I gave you every chance to trust me. To open up to me. You didn’t. So I’m going to peel you back, layer by layer, until you fucking get honest.”
Once he’d stripped away her emotional defenses, she would have nothing and no one to rely on but him. Then he’d find out what she actually felt for him…if anything.
What if she doesn’t love you in return?
It would suck, but that wasn’t the point of this exercise. He couldn’t force her love any more than he could force her trust. What he could compel? Obedience. Honesty. Communication.
He hoped that, somehow, it would be enough.
Beside him, Laila pressed her lips together and said nothing.
Trees swore under his breath. Why did she insist on keeping so many fucking secrets? Why was she trying so hard to hide from him?
The drive passed. Tension vibrated between them. He could have cut it with small talk, but he wanted her to feel it. So he let her drown in the silence. Once he’d stripped away her defenses and had her emotionally naked, then he’d get her talking. At the very least, he would show her that he could both rebuild her and be worthy of her trust.
What she did with that knowledge was up to her.
As they ambled down the road to his place, darkness fell. He disabled his exterior security gate and rumbled down the dirt driveway, then reinstated the perimeter fencing behind him with the press of a button. Barney barked out his greeting, chasing his truck up the side of the fence.
Laila smiled. “He is always so happy to see you.”
“I’ve taught him to trust me.”
Her smile fell. “He is lucky. Trust is not a luxury everyone can afford.”
She didn’t think she could afford to trust him? What the fuck had he done to earn her doubt?
Nothing. He was fighting her past.
Finally, he parked in the garage out back, then repeated the command he’d given her before she’d visited her sister. “Sit there. I’ll come around for you.” He turned to pin her with a glare. “Do you understand?”
For once, she looked chastened. “Yes.”
“Good.” He climbed out, gave Barney a scratch between the ears and a few treats from the bin on the nearby shelf. Once the dog trotted away, munching happily, Trees rounded the vehicle.
He opened the door and held out his hand to Laila. As if she finally understood there was hell to pay, she looked from his outstretched palm up to his face. Their gazes connected. She shivered. He felt the answering ping, just like the first time he’d laid eyes on her.
Her fingers shook as she settled them across his own. Then she edged off the seat, sliding toward the ground.
As her body skimmed his, he sucked back a sharp breath at the heady sensations. Fuck, he was supposed to undo her, not the other way around. “Let’s go. I’ll get your things out of the back seat later.”
She nodded. Once he shut the passenger door and closed his detached garage, he led her across the backyard and toward the door, his hand hovering over her delicate spine.
When they stopped, he reached around her to unlock the back door. She stayed him with a hand on his wrist. “Will you hurt me?”
Trees swiveled a stare her way. If she was afraid, it didn’t show. “In my dungeon? That’s up to you.”
“How?”
Her expression softened him. She was worried, and the knowledge in her hazel eyes was far too old for her young face. Laila was so full of fire and resistance and irrepressible purpose, he often forgot that she was a dozen years younger.
“I’ll explain everything soon.” He opened the door, guided her inside, then locked up behind her and enabled the alarm. Against his better judgment, he turned and cupped her face. “And I promise I’ll never intentionally leave you confused. Do you need anything before we head down? Food? Water? And don’t think of refusing either just because you don’t want to owe me.”