Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
I pinched my lips together, fisting my hand tight.
His eyebrow rose about a millimeter before the hand that had spun my stool landed on top of one of mine. “Listen to me, Cricket,” he instructed, prying my fingers open with his dry, warm ones.
“I’m listening,” I said, trying to ignore the fact I was gritting my teeth while I did it.
“He’s yours, and you’re his,” Henri reminded me, taking my other hand and starting to peel those fingers open too. He didn’t break eye contact. “No one is taking your boy.”
“Nobody,” I emphasized with a little nod.
“And I told you every person here is mine, didn’t I?” he went on, giving my pinkie a jiggle when he was done spreading my fingers.
“Yeah.” I sounded like Pascal answering that, kind of pouty, kind of resigned.
His eyebrow went up to be parallel with the other one, and I wondered if he recognized the tone. If he did, he let it go. “And you’re a member of this community, aren’t you?”
I nodded slowly.
“That includes you and Duncan, and I’m not letting anybody go anywhere,” this gorgeous man assured me. “Right?”
He didn’t have to be this nice to me, and I knew it, but I sure wasn’t going to bring it up. So I dipped my chin and agreed, “Right.”
Henri’s thumb swept over my knuckles. “You’re upset, and he’s alarmed. Neither of you need to feel any kind of way, but you want to know what he is, don’t you?”
The selfish part of me wanted to say that I didn’t, not at this cost, but… “I do.”
“Then they need to come and meet him, but that’s all that’s going to happen. Got it?”
I didn’t want to say it, didn’t think I could to begin with, but I had to.
I knew it.
I just had to dig in deeper than I ever had in my life to find the totally unselfish part of me. It was buried under layers and layers of emotional greed, stubbornness, and fear of losing something precious and irreplaceable. Because that’s what Duncan was to me. He was my treasure, and nobody wanted to lose what they valued the most.
Nobody.
“Unless he wants to go,” I made myself mutter, knowing dang well that I might have said the words, but they sounded so, so forced.
The soft padding of feet warned me that my boy was coming over, and my donut’s chin went straight for my knee.
He gave me a look that had me sighing. He had his smiling face on. How could he be this mature at his age?
“It’s all right,” I reassured him, reaching down to stroke his soft cheek. I gave it a gentle pinch; it was so squishy. “Nothing is going to happen unless you want it to.”
I really hoped I didn’t sneer when I said that last sentence, but if I did, Duncan didn’t have a way to tell me.
But his “love” right then was the fuel that kept my heart beating, and I loved him so much, looking at his devoted face. At those long ears that were now getting further and further away from the floor with every inch he grew. He was the cutest boy in the entire world.
The best one.
And I had to do right by him, no matter the cost.
“Finish your breakfast,” I told Dunky with a blown kiss. “It’s you and me forever.” I paused. And maybe a future stepdaddy, but I kept that tidbit to myself with Protective Henri over here covering me with his scent.
I was going to talk to Matti about that when I had the chance.
My puppy gave me another long look that was pretty suspicious, but he reluctantly trotted back to his mat, that incredible tail swinging from side to side.
When Duncan was eating again, I faced Henri. “That’s the only way he can go—if he wants to.”
“No” came at me from across the kitchen and eased some more of the tension in my chest. It also made me smile because he was such a stubborn, nosy donut.
“Unless he wants to,” Henri man agreed, not looking like he totally believed me.
I dropped my voice. “But if they try to take him against his wishes, you’ll rip their spines out?”
He lifted a hand and dragged it down his handsome face before pinning me with his amber eyes. Henri almost huffed. “No. No one is ripping out anyone’s spine, Nina.”
I blinked. “But if they try and kidnap him?”
“Then we’ll talk to them and make it known they can’t,” he replied, squinting a little.
It was a sign to me I was feeling better about the situation because of Duncan’s insistent “no” that I lifted my chin at Henri. “But what if they’re pushy? Would you?”
His eyes were slits by that point, but his mouth was a funny little line when he said, “I can’t tell if you’re fucking with me right now or if you’re being serious.”