Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Was he capable of being faithful to one woman? That was a big leap. He’d never considered such a thing. Especially a woman he cared about. One he couldn’t live without. One who would end up owning him so his freedom would be in question.
Lyric would walk away. She was already on the verge of flight. It wasn’t that she didn’t care, she did. Like him, she cared too much. She didn’t believe his emotions were involved the way hers were. She knew herself, she’d spelled it out for him, all the reasons they weren’t compatible. Under all the bullshit reasons there was that one real one. If he claimed her and they were intimate together and he walked away or turned to another woman, she would be shattered. She’d stated that in no uncertain terms.
Lyric was nothing if not honest. He had the ability to destroy her. She was that soft inside. When he claimed her, he would have to keep that always uppermost in his mind. He couldn’t carelessly let loose his temper on her because he feared she would get the upper hand in their relationship. He had his demons. He would have to lay them out to her, not as an excuse, but because he wanted to give her everything he was. Let her know she held that one piece of him that was as vulnerable as she was.
He made up his mind, but the doing of it wasn’t going to be easy. He wasn’t yet that man. He had too many demons to perfect his skills with a woman like Lyric. She needed certain things from him, and he’d have to learn what those things were and how best to implement them without losing himself.
The one thing he knew for certain was Lyric Johansen had been created for him. If that was true, then it stood to reason he was the one man created for her. He could shelter her in a way no other man could. He could see to those soft parts of her, the ones others would destroy. He could teach her about family, bring her in slowly until she understood they would accept her just the way she was. He could do all that.
He took a deep breath and let it out. He would have to convince her, and the one sticking point would be the other women. She knew him too well. She’d seen him so many times jerk his chin at a woman, leave with her, and come back with the woman clinging and purring and him ignoring her. There was no way to undo that. He would go on runs with his brothers. He would go to the parties. She would always be worried. He had no way of combating that.
The worst would be when he couldn’t tell her where he was going and he’d disappear for days or weeks. She would wonder, and she’d have every right to. Those were things he would have to consider and prepare for. He knew Lyric. She wouldn’t sit at home and wonder. She’d stuff everything of value to her in her backpack and she’d take off.
He made his way back to the little space he called a cave and entered, stacking the wood meticulously, reviving the fire, and pulling off his boots to set them aside to dry. She hadn’t looked up from where she was lying on the sleeping bag. She wasn’t crying because she wouldn’t give that to him. He’d stomped on her, and she wasn’t about to give him her tears.
Strange how he never would have tolerated a woman manipulating him by crying. He’d learned that lesson the hard way, but now he’d give anything to have Lyric trust him with her tears.
“You awake?” He sat across from her bed. He could see she still had a headache, but she’d been applying a cold cloth to her face.
“Yes.”
“I need to ask you a couple of questions, Wildfire. The answers are important to me. To us. I need you to be totally honest with me.”
She rubbed her face with the wet cloth she had in her hand and slowly sat up. She didn’t make one of her usual smart-ass comments, she just regarded him steadily.
“When you think about living with me, do you picture me sticking with just you, or do you see me with other women?”
She frowned. Watching him. She took a moment to pour more cool water on the cloth and applied it to her temple. Not her eyes, her temple. That headache was still vicious. “As it is an impossibility for us to be living together, I don’t give that any thought.”
“Give it a thought. Would it bother you to have me go off with another woman?”
Her frown deepened. “I don’t understand.”
“You understand the question; you’re avoiding. Give it some thought. I need an honest answer.”