Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
He could only smile back, propped on an elbow as he gazed down at her where she lay on their bed in the trailer on his land.
“Is that so?” he teased.
“Yup. I see it written all over you. I feel it in these hands.” She ran her fingers over the calluses he’d gotten from building their cabin.
Their home.
Where they were going to raise their family.
He’d given his mother the other half of the money he’d saved during his years fighting, and she was having a house built on the property next to them.
Once the cabin was finished, he planned to start his own construction company.
Build their lives up with the strength of his hands.
Because Paula was wrong.
Stefan was wrong.
He would take care of his family, and he didn’t need anyone else to do it.
“And I see it every time you look at me.” Autumn ran her fingertip down the side of his face. “It’s so very plain to see how much you love me.”
He ran his hand over her swollen belly. His heart soared, and he touched her face. “More than you’ll ever know. I promise you always, baby.”
“Always,” she whispered back.
TWENTY-ONE
MILO
My hand clamped down tighter on the steering wheel, my jaw locked in agony as I took the twisting mountain road. Night eclipsed me on all sides and pressed down in a crushing weight from above. The edge of the dense, thick forest that hugged the pavement barely lit in a blur as I passed.
I had no destination in mind. I just had to get the hell away from the regret that was tearing me limb from limb.
Away from the draw I could feel calling me back to where I’d walked out on Tessa like a total prick. No better than the fucker she’d finally gotten free of. Touching her like she was meant for me when I knew better than getting her involved in the dumpster fire that had been my life.
Getting her involved.
I scoffed.
What bullshit.
I’d sucked that girl in so deep I could feel her seeping into the fractures, bleeding into the cracks. Finding her way into the places I had to keep her from, though I’d been the fool who’d invited her in for a front-row seat.
Today, she’d gone and wrecked all my reserve.
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, but she’d gotten up and taken an active role.
She’d spent the day with my children like they’d become the most important thing in her life.
Made them feel alive and whole and cherished.
Safe.
And fuck, I guessed it was me who wasn’t feeling so safe right then.
Every barrier and wall I’d constructed had been damaged. One more chink in them and they’d crumble at her feet.
My stomach fisted, and my dick pressed at my jeans.
I could still taste her on my lips. Could still smell her on my fingers. Could feel her all the way down in that spot that longed to be filled.
Every cell in my body was knotted in want.
That was bad enough.
But it was my stupid heart that was angling in a direction I couldn’t let it go that had nausea curling through my stomach.
How in God’s name could I know something was so damned wrong, so at odds with every promise I had made, and crave it like it might be the only thing that could sustain my next breath?
Guilt hurtled through my bloodstream, and I scrubbed a palm over my face like it could wake me from the nightmare.
Keep me from the demons that hunted.
Their howls in my ears screaming of what I’d done.
Thought maybe they’d physically manifested themselves in the glare of the headlights that blinded me from behind.
It’d taken me a minute to notice they’d come closer and closer with each tight turn my old truck had taken up the narrow, winding road.
A road that was normally deserted this time of night.
Squinting, I glanced in the rearview mirror, trying to get a take on who was riding my tail.
All I could make out was a large SUV.
Black.
Indistinct.
I slowed a bit to let the asshole pass.
Instead of going around, they edged even closer than before. Right up on my ass, so close that if I tapped my brakes they’d likely collide with the back of my truck.
A slosh of adrenaline dumped into my veins, and I inhaled around the disorder that began to pound.
Heart beating heavy.
Stoking this dread I felt slither through me as I looked out the side mirrors to gauge what was up.
Had seen enough trouble in my life to know when something was off. When evil had come to collect.
Karma had a way of rearing her ugly head in the moments you’d begun to hope for something different. When you’d been fool enough to hope for something better after you’d already carved out the consequences years before.
Your destruction written in time.