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)
My eyes went wide, but he ignored me.
“No part of being with you would be a hardship or a sacrifice.” He slipped his arm around my lower back one more time, his forearm tight to it. “And what you are, or what our children might be, doesn’t factor into my decision at all, because that’s what this is. My choice. So what if you scare the fuck out of people? You’re a protector. Randall and Ani got nothing on you, Cricket.” He smiled. “Neither do I. And if we had a child and they had your magic? We would teach them to do the right thing, like your parents taught you.”
He nodded slowly, watching me process his words.
“Who would ever expect that the person they need to worry about the most on this ranch looks like a forest princess?”
I opened my mouth, closed it, then laughed, hard. “I can’t even tell you how touched I am you think I look like a forest princess, and that you would say it with a straight face. Did someone tell you Pascal called me that?”
He nodded. “He couldn’t remember your name at first and kept calling you that.”
I laughed again and brushed the side of his neck with my thumb. Maybe I wouldn’t take all of Pascal’s future kids, maybe just the first one. “Look, I want to make sure, that’s all. You’re so handsome, you could have already been mated a million times to a million other people.”
“Thank you.” He sounded so sincere.
“But so could I,” I told him, half joking.
That wiped the smile right off his face.
“To very handsome men too, Fluff.” I was messing with him now.
His eyes went a little squinty, and I was eating it up with a spoon.
“Listen to me, though. This is serious. Your cousin—or nephew, or whatever Matti is—is my best friend.”
The arm on my lower back slid just a little lower. “I know. And you know how our biology works. I wouldn’t sign up for this unless you checked every single one of my boxes.”
I shivered. He was right. I knew he was right, but….
His gaze moved from my face, down my chest, and lower before making a slow, quiet trek back up. “All of them.”
Did I want to believe him? More than anything. Anything.
I still opened my mouth to insist, but he started talking again.
“I like your smile,” he said, balling up his fist between us and raising his pinky finger, which was almost the size of my thumb.
I blinked. “Proceed.”
His smile grew a fraction as he lifted his ring finger next. “You have a good heart.”
I nodded because I thought I did, have a good heart that was, and that made him smile even more.
His middle finger came up next. “You’re funny.”
“I am funny,” I agreed.
That got him to laugh and bump his forehead to mine briefly before his index finger went up. “You’re brave.”
“Sometimes I’m a chicken,” I butted in. “Just to set realistic expectations. The only reason I handled those bogeymen that well was because I’ve seen their kind before.” I paused. “And I guess their physical appearance didn’t really scare me either.”
He nodded like he already knew that. “I can deal with our taxes in the future. I could start practicing how to remove ticks now, if you’d like,” Henri said with a straight face.
I leaned back so far, it was only my arms clinging to him and the one he had around my back that kept me from falling right off. “Stop it.” Teasing Henri might end up being the death of me.
He winked before raising his thumb. “I like your face. More than any other face I’ve ever seen.” With his forearm, he lifted me back up to sitting, his face so intent. “I just like you, Nina. I love you. Everything about you. The way you are with all the kids. How you’d do anything for Duncan. How patient you are with Agnes. Margaret told me all about how nice you were with her, when I know how difficult she can be.”
If everything before hadn’t been enough to win over whatever leftover reluctance was in my body, what he said next lassoed my heart, my soul, and everything else in. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a mate, and I didn’t even know what that was until you bit my leg.”
My body didn’t know what to do with itself. I wasn’t even sure I was able to gape at him. But somehow, some way, after a moment, with my voice weak, I managed to say, “You love me?”
His nod was so slow. “I love you.”
Air rushed out of my lungs. “Well, you already know how I feel about you because you pointed it out. And everything you said? I’ve thought the same things so many times.” I clutched his shoulders tighter, the muscles firm beneath my fingers. “But… the other thing I need to tell you is that Duncan still hasn’t met the people from Alaska who might be like him. If they invite him, and he decides to leave and asks me to go with him… I don’t think I can say no. And it isn’t because I’m not crazy about you, because I am, but because—”