Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Stopping, he shook his head at her. “No. I need to put a tracker on you.”
“Do not! No one is tracking me,” she announced as they walked into the dining room.
Drat.
She had really thought the dining room was in the opposite direction. How on earth was she ever going to find her way around this house?
“Who is tracking you?” Jared demanded.
North sent her a knowing look at Jared’s words.
“No one,” she grumbled. “North just thinks that I’m going to get lost or something.”
“Ahh, good plan,” Jared said. “You should make that happen.”
“What? I don’t think so. I draw the line at you guys tracking me.”
“That’s where you draw the line?” North asked.
“Yes.”
“Interesting.”
Huh? How was that interesting?
“Come. You need to eat,” North said when Jared didn’t say anything more.
In fact, he looked preoccupied by something on his phone.
“Is everything okay?” she asked as North helped her sit. She was getting better at sitting in a chair they held out.
“Yes. Fine,” Jared replied.
“I’m going to heat the plates up,” North said, picking up his plate and hers.
Jared’s looked untouched as well. She stood and reached for it. She might as well take it to the kitchen as well.
Only Jared reached out and grabbed her wrist. The movement was so sudden that it startled her, and she let out a cry, nearly falling back on her ass.
Jared scooped her up and drew her onto his lap.
“Holy heck. You’ve got good reflexes.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “Are you all right?”
“Oh, yeah. Fine. You just . . . startled me.”
More like scared the living daylights out of her. Her heart was still racing.
Jared grunted. “Why is your top on inside out?”
“It is?” She held up the arm. “Oh my God! How did I not notice that? New fear unlocked.”
“What fear is that, sweetheart?” he asked as he helped her take off her sweater and put it back on properly.
Sheesh.
“Um, the fear that I’ll walk around with my clothes inside out and back to front. How does someone do that?”
“Maybe you had something else on your mind.”
Yeah, she certainly had.
Him. And North.
He held her, staring down at his food.
“Um, Jared?” she asked.
“Yes?”
“Is something wrong?”
“Why would you ask me that?”
“Because you’re just staring at your food, lost in thought.”
“Family stuff,” he replied.
Ahh. Right.
North walked back in, carrying two plates. “Are you going to feed her like that?”
Jared looked at her and finally he seemed to see her. “Yes, I believe I will.”
“Um, I don’t need anyone to feed me.”
But there was a secret part inside her that liked the idea. That revelled in the way that they took care of her. She’d never really had this.
Having both of them focused on her? It made her head spin.
Even North, who didn’t seem like a caretaker at all, was taking care of her in his own way. He moved Jared’s plate aside and set down the one in his hand. Then North started cutting the food.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Cutting up the food so it’s easier for Jared to feed you,” he explained.
“Nobody needs to feed me.”
“I want to, though,” Jared stated.
“And you always get what you want,” she said. It was meant to sound sarcastic, but it came out almost breathy.
“That’s right. I do.” Jared took the fork from North who sat across from them, checking something on his phone.
Then Jared held up a forkful of food.
She took it, chewing. She didn’t quite know what to do. Should she protest more? Or should she just accept it?
“Just do what you’re told,” Jared told her. “It will make everything easier.”
“For you!”
“And for me,” North added.
A huff left her but she accepted another bite of food.
“Is there any coffee?” she asked.
“You’ve already had some,” Jared told her.
“One cup! I need more than one cup to survive.”
“No, you don’t. I think you should cut down. We could start with some decaf coffee, then move on to herbal tea.”
“Decaf coffee! I won’t put up with that sort of language,” she told him.
“What sort of language?” he asked, appearing startled.
“Decaf,” she hissed. “As far as I’m concerned it should be outlawed. What use is coffee without the caffeine? It’s like Homer Simpson without Marge.”
“Weird comparison,” North said.
“Weird but true. If there isn’t any, I can make some myself.”
“You will not,” Jared told her.
Sheesh. He was just full of orders, wasn’t he? He fed her another bite of food, then leaned back in his chair, studying her. “How many cups of coffee do you have a day?”
“Um, I don’t know.”
“Guess,” he prompted.
Hmm. How many did she usually have? Three in the morning. Then another two in the early afternoon. Then three more. “About seven or eight, I guess.”
“That’s definitely too many. You’re cutting down to four.”
“What? No way!”
“Yes way,” Jared replied.
“Who is going to make me?” she demanded.
He leaned in close to her. “Me.”