Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Wilder’s hand clamped over hers, holding her palm to his heart as he settled back against the pillows.
“He’s all yours,” Falcon said. “I’m tired of babysitting. You can deal with his tantrums. His chart is on the wall, although he gets up regularly and messes with it.”
Wilder gave him the middle finger as the other man walked out, leaving Harlow alone with him. Satisfaction gleamed in his crystalline eyes for just a moment.
Harlow took a deep breath and let it out. Wilder had such a way of throwing her off-balance. “You have got to stop getting up and down like a crazy person, Wilder. You know better. You might not be a medical doctor, but you’re highly intelligent and have enough knowledge to know that you need a little healing time before you start PT or moving around to the point you undo all the internal work the surgeons did on you.”
She swept a hand through her hair, betraying her agitation. He was looking at her so intently, as if he was hanging on every word, but she wasn’t certain he was actually hearing what she was saying.
“You’re a grown man. You’re intelligent. Why would you risk your life like this?”
He caught her hand again and pulled it to his chest, his thumb sliding over the sensitive skin of her inner wrist. “You have a point, Harlow, a good one. I am intelligent, just as you are. I am grown-up, just as you are. So I’m asking you the same question. Why would you risk your life like you do?”
Her heart dropped as his piercing gaze met hers. Hawkin Wilder wasn’t a man to challenge to a verbal match. He would win every time, at least with her. She should have known he would ask the hard questions she had refused to think about. Denying his accusation was useless, and she wasn’t a coward. If she wanted him to face truths, she had to do the same.
“I suppose I never looked at it that way. I run. I’ve been running all of my life. When I climb, my mind doesn’t think about the things I know my father has done and my mother has covered up. I don’t have to think that I should have tried harder to get someone to believe me when I told people about him. If I had, maybe this young woman who disappeared would still be alive. Maybe any other girl he touched without their consent wouldn’t be a weight on my shoulders. And the death threats? Maybe I think I deserve them as much as the ones my parents receive.”
All the while she spoke, the pad of his thumb gently glided back and forth over her inner wrist. His touch felt far too intimate, creating a bond between them that wasn’t really there. Couldn’t ever be there. She tugged on her hand to get it back, but his fingers curled around her wrist like a shackle, holding her clenched fist against his heart.
“Thank you for telling me the truth,” he said. “I wasn’t throwing a tantrum to get my way because I’m tired of being in this bed the way Falcon or even Rainier and obviously you believe. You were missing. You’ve been avoiding me since I came to you for help. I wasn’t able to talk to you or see that you were okay with the danger I was clearly bringing to you. Then, when Rainier found that threat in your mailbox and no one could find you, I had to find you myself. That’s what I do best. I track people. I’m not losing you.”
She found herself frowning. When she did, he immediately rubbed at her lower lip with his finger. Again, his touch and the gesture were far too intimate.
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t want to understand. We’ve been dancing around each other for a long time, Harlow. It took me a little time to realize you weren’t going to stand still and let me catch you. You weren’t playing games; you simply weren’t going to allow yourself to be in a relationship. It took me far too long to realize the truth, and when I did, I had to figure out how best to handle the situation.”
“The situation?” she echoed faintly. He was so intense. She couldn’t do intense. A part of her knew where he was going, but most of her rejected even the possibility.
“When I call you mon rêve, that’s what you are to me: my dream. The only dream I’ve ever had. The only one I will ever have.”
She was shaking her head again, something she found she often did around him. He made no sense. “I’m no one’s dream, Wilder. Nightmare, maybe, but not dream. You may think you have an idea what my family is like, but my father’s a monster. That’s what I come from.”