Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 42171 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 211(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42171 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 211(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
I wipe a tear off my cheek. “Do you know how many trees I’ve pruned in my life?”
He seems taken aback at the change in the subject. “Hundreds,” he answers as he tries to dry my eyes.
I nod. “Yeah, hundreds, but today was the first day I really thought about what I was doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“We prune the trees to get rid of the diseased branches. That way the tree is healthier and the fruit is better.”
He nods.
“Yeah, well, after they made the offer today, I asked to think about it. I wanted to walk around their orchard and think things through. I was worried about making the wrong decision.”
He nods, and his jaw hardens.
“Well, I watched the men working, pruning the trees, and it hit me. I figured it out.”
After I pause for a few seconds, he shakes his head. “What did you figure out?”
“You think you’re saving me.”
He shakes his head to disagree, but I keep talking. “You once told me that you would never take your pleasure and give me pain. If you thought you were holding me back in any way, you wouldn’t do it. You were pushing me away not because you didn’t want me or that you thought this was a fling but because you thought you didn’t deserve me. You think I deserve something that I don’t even want.”
He opens his mouth to say something and then closes it again.
“Say it,” I encourage him.
“You deserve better.”
I wait for him to continue, and when he doesn’t, I know I have to find some way to show him reason. “First of all, I don’t think there is anyone better than you, Asher Wild. Yeah, you might be a little grumpy, but you have made me feel more special than I’ve ever felt in my life.”
“You are special, Maddie.”
I tilt my head. “I deserve to be with a man that is going to care if I have my EpiPen or not. I deserve a man that wants to take me for golf cart rides under the moonlight. I deserve a man that sees me upset and decides he’s going to help me like you did with my parents.” I put my hand to the side of Asher’s face, and he leans into my hold. “I deserve a man that’s going to get me a heating pad when I have cramps and a man that will make sure I have an orgasm—hell, multiple orgasms that I didn’t even know I was capable of.” I lean into him. “You’re that man, Asher. I want you to be that man.”
He pulls me to him and settles me on his lap. “I want to be that man, too.”
I loop my arms around his neck. “So it’s settled.”
He nuzzles his lips against my neck. “I’m sorry, Maddie. I’m sorry for letting you leave here thinking that you didn’t mean anything to me when the exact opposite is true.”
“I forgive you.”
He chuckles as he kisses up my neck and then nips at my ear. “You should make me grovel, baby.”
I pull back to look into his eyes. “I missed you today. I forgave you before I even got back into Peach Springs, Asher.”
His lips caress mine, and I take full advantage of his kiss. I can’t help but shift on his lap, and I feel his erect manhood poking against my hip. I pull my lips from his. “You missed me too.”
It’s a statement, not a question, and he nods his head in agreement. “I missed you, too.” He sucks in a ragged breath.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
He traces his fingers across my eyebrows, down my nose, across my cheeks. It’s like he’s committing it all to memory. “How long do we have?”
“How long?” I ask him. When he’s touching me, I have trouble keeping up with what he’s saying. “How long? What do you mean?”
His voice is strained. “How long until you report to Evers?”
My eyebrows raise. “Are you firing me?”
“Firing you? No, of course not.”
“Good.” I laugh. “Because I thanked them for the opportunity, but I told them that I preferred to work with peaches.”
His body tenses under mine. “You’re staying? You’re not leaving?”
With no doubts at all, I answer him. “Yeah, I’m staying.”
He envelops me in his arms and holds me tight against him. His whole body shudders as he holds my body to his. “I do have a few conditions, though.”
He pulls back and promises me, “Anything. Anything you want, it’s yours.”
“Two things.”
He nods. “Anything.”
I hold up one finger. “No more lying to me.”
“I didn’t—” he starts and then shakes his head. “Right, okay, I won’t ever lie to you again. Even if I’m doing it to protect you or because I think I’m doing what’s right. I won’t lie to you again.”
I nod. “Good. And from now on, we sleep together. I waited for you to come to me last night and ugh, it was horrible when you didn’t show up.”