Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
I glance at Davis, teasing him with the soft lilt in my voice. “Will you, Daddy? Will you protect us?”
His eyes, intense and hungry, meet mine in the dim light. The cabin is dark, just like it was that first night I met him. It’s now repainted and renovated, though. Fresh and new. But still, being here reminds me of that night. When everything changed for me forever.
“Of course, I will,” Davis responds, gruffly. “Daddy will always protect you. All of you.”
God. From the first day to this, nobody and nothing makes me feel so full of love and desire as him.
Margaret lets out a sleepy yawn. “You promise, Daddy?”
“Promise, Sunshine,” he says, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “Now, go to sleep. Rest up. We’re chopping firewood tomorrow and I need you to be ready.”
“Can I swing the axe?” Steven asks for what feels like the seven-hundredth time today, and I bubble out with a giggle.
“Go to bed, stinker. Close your eyes,” I say, giving him a little tickle on his still-chubby tummy. “Count your sheep.”
“I want to count wolves,” Stevie says, sounding sleepy now, too.
“Then count wolves,” Davis says, sternly. “But you heard your mother. Go to sleep.”
They both shut their eyes, pretending to be asleep. Like two little terrible actors playing dead in a school play. Davis gets up on one shoulder, watching me over the two of them. Eyes connected. Souls connected. Hearts connected. As one.
“I love you,” he mouths to me.
“I love you, too,” I whisper back.
The wolves howl again, getting closer now. I hear claws nearby, but now I’m not afraid. Not with Davis here. Never.
“I have something for you, gorgeous,” Davis says, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the kids.
I roll over as best I can, wedged in between cushions and blankets and everything. “We said no gifts.”
He lifts an eyebrow at me. “You said no gifts. But Daddy decides for himself.”
The way he says it makes me blush instantly. We are always evolving, changing, getting kinkier and closer and hotter. We still make love like it’s the very first time. Every time. Enough passion to light the world on fire.
He slips his hand into the pocket of his plaid flannel, lumberjack green. And hooked over his thick, strong finger comes a gold chain with diamond letters. One for each of the kids, and two gold horses. “Happy tenth anniversary to the love of my life. The center of my universe. The only pure thing in the world.”
“I love it. Even if you broke the rules. You want to go for a ride in the morning?” I ask, already itching to get into the saddle and take a ride to where everything started. I love the trails and I’ve become quite the horsewoman and riding has become my church.
“You know by now, there isn’t a single kind of ride I don’t want to take with you baby.”
“My smooth-talking mountain man.”
“That’s me. Forever baby. Forever.”