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 know—”
“Listen.” He took my hand and tugged on my fingers with his. His tone imploring, his face freaking concrete. “Today was one of the worst days of my damn life.”
I stopped moving.
“All I wanted since we got back, since I saw you carrying a kid on your shoulders, shaking and pale, was to check on you, and I couldn’t.” He gritted his teeth. “I’ve never been resentful about the things I’ve inherited with the ranch, but today… I was today, Nina.”
As much as that meant to me, and that was a whole lot, so, so much… this was the last thing I’d wanted from him. I didn’t want him to feel bad. “It’s okay,” I said in a small voice.
“It’s not. I should’ve been with you.” Those long fingers linked through mine. “The reason we have elders and employees is to spread the work out. I should’ve been with you. There’s no excuse to justify how the day went down—”
“Fluff, it’s all right. You were busy—”
Fire burned in his irises. “It’s almost ten at night, and I’m barely checking in on you!”
This was exactly what I’d wanted, but it made me feel guilty. I squeezed his hand. “They needed you more,” I tried to reason.
The way he exhaled, so forcefully, with so much emotion, made me blink. “They did, but I needed to make sure you were okay.”
My whole body jerked. “Henri….”
He shook his head. “I never want anything. I never ask anyone for anything. My entire life has been in preparation for taking care of everything and everyone, and for the first time… for the first time, I’ve got someone around that feels more mine than anybody else I’ve ever met. For the first time, I’ve found something I want.” I felt my lip drop a little. He stepped even closer, his chest pressing into mine. “And you know what I get instead? I finally make it back, and I find you talking to fucking Keegan.”
“What are you doing?” I asked, staring up at him as my breasts pressed against the wide expanse of his chest.
Those incredible eyes moved from one of mine to the other, and in the time it took me to wonder again what he was up to, one of his hands came up to trap my chin. In one swift movement, he dipped his head and brushed his lips against mine. The pressure was featherlight.
Henri Blackrock pulled back a centimeter after a second, then he did it again.
He kissed me.
Softly, with so much feeling in the way he pressed his lips to mine, that I shuddered, not sure what in the world to do until the last second, when he and that dark pink mouth were retreating, I went up to my toes and kissed him back before rocking back on my heels. Holding my breath. Staring up at him as he hovered there so close to my mouth, looking just as surprised as I felt by not just what he’d done, but what I’d done too. We’d surprised the crap out of each other.
Maybe even ourselves.
I searched his face for a sign, an explanation, something, anything. “What was that?”
His lips parted, and I didn’t miss the way he licked his bottom one, his eyebrows drawing back down on his forehead like he was frowning but not.
“Henri?” I tried again, keeping my voice low.
That muscle in his cheek worked from side to side.
“Fluff. What was that?” I poked him in the stomach, getting frustrated with myself. Why had I done that? Why had he done that? We weren’t supposed to be doing this anymore, dang it. I poked him again. “You can’t do that. We talked about this. I’m trying to be a good friend. I’m trying not—” I cut myself off, but it was too late.
I didn’t want to love him. There was nothing platonic about my feelings, and I had to get over that. It’s what I’d been trying to do, hello.
But I could see something reflected in his irises.
I raised my eyebrows at him. Held in my breath too. “What?” I asked slowly, not sure I wanted to know what was going through his head.
Murder Henri was gone. Teasing and Grumpy Henri wasn’t on the same block either. Great Wolf Henri was the one staring down at me.
And that version of him wasn’t impulsive. He was just… Henri. A mountain. An ocean. An immovable force of nature that did what he had to do, even if he didn’t want to do it.
And it was while I went over that idea that he reached for me, a hand curling over my hip, and he said softly but very clearly seven words that had me flinching. “I don’t want to be your friend.”
He might as well have slapped me.
But he wasn’t done. “I want you to marry me,” Henri said.