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)
Was that what all this shit was about? The three months?
“I don’t hold myself above any of our guidelines. I needed to wait. You deserved the time to settle in,” he tried to explain. “I thought we were on the same page—”
My scoff wasn’t exactly quiet. “We haven’t been in the same book, Fluff, if you think this is supposed to not surprise me.”
Henri stroked my hip a little more, all his features pursed with intent. “You liked me, I liked you, and I could tell….”
“Tell what?” I asked slowly.
“That there was more there. More than attraction. More than surface feelings.” His eyes moved over my face. “I thought you knew that.”
My voice was a little flat. “How was I supposed to?”
“You think I kiss every member of the ranch?” he asked. “You think I tell all my friends to fuck off and go sniff around somebody else for just anyone?”
He’d told his friends to fuck off? What friends?
“You have to understand how many people have come here over the years and left before their three months were up. I didn’t expect you to stay either, not at the beginning. I was trying to do the right thing, dammit.” His eyebrows dropped on his forehead. “Why the hell do you think I told you to wait to start dating?”
I sputtered. “I mean… it was wishful thinking….” Had he been jealous? Had he been trying to sabotage my dating efforts for his own benefit?
I leaned back and looked up at him, totally caught off guard by this conniving MFer.
One side of his mouth curled a little, his thumb continuing to do that circle thing as he held me against him. “From the moment you made fun of Spencer, I knew I was in trouble.”
I squinted so warily. “Go on.”
His mouth curled a little more. “Then you made us go visit him so you could say you were sorry, and that was it.” He exhaled. “Liking you would’ve been enough, but… you had to be you.”
The sound that came out of my nose was as unexpected as the smile that took over his lips, and I think I might have gone a little lightheaded again for a second. “Are you telling me this right now because I almost died?”
The way the growl crept up his throat gave me the good kind of goose bumps. “Don’t remind me.”
I raised my eyebrows, and he growled again.
“Yes, I was trying to wait for the three months to be up. We’re two weeks away. What are they gonna do? Kick me out?” He had the nerve to snicker.
Just when I thought I had him figured out, he’d admit something like this. I poked him again. “But you still pretended I didn’t say anything every time I brought it up.”
He almost looked regretful. “Cut me some slack. I don’t get proposed to on a regular basis.”
My body wasn’t prepared for Funny Henri. The skin on my arms prickled. “Who did you tell to fuck off anyway? Those men who came into the kitchen?” I asked him.
His palm slid up and curled around my waist, beneath my shirt. “Yes.” His tone didn’t say he felt bad about it either.
“Really?”
“They should’ve walked out the second I came in. Randall tried to tell them. I was a minute away from doing something no one was going to like.”
Maybe some people thought you shouldn’t be attracted to possessive people, but I wasn’t one of them. It fueled my soul. Fed my spirit. If I could’ve glowed, I would have.
I just shook my head at him, smiling a little bit because I couldn’t help myself. Plus, I’d known he was up to something rubbing his face all over me!
Henri closed the distance between us even more, his mouth hovering above mine. “I’d lay down my life for every single member of the ranch, but I was on the verge of forgetting about that. I had a talk with most of them afterward and made things real clear. You’re the only person I was trying to keep anything from, Cricket, and the truth is, I can’t go through you going on a single date,” he told me somberly. “Attraction is important, but respect, loyalty… strength… those are the traits that matter the most to my people. If we’re lucky, we might meet a few people in our lives that our senses are drawn to without ever talking to them. But it’s everything after that that matters most.”
That sounded an awful lot like how every werewolf before him had explained how mating someone worked. Basically, biology had a small say in it: the same way you might prefer apples over oranges, you smelled someone you liked more than someone else. Then every once in a while you might meet a strawberry, your absolute favorite fruit. The one who lit up your taste buds and your sense of smell like nothing else.