Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
He’s taking over my life. I’m losing my independence. And part of me doesn’t care with this man. What is wrong with me?
I arrive at the food trucks and pass them right by, walking to the benches I normally sit on with Reese. “Cat.”
I rotate to find him walking toward me, all loose-legged swagger and confidence that I can’t dare rattle right now, right before he returns to court. I don’t know what I’m going to say or do.
Chapter twenty-five
Cat
Reese stops in front of me, and when he reaches for me, I step back. “No. I think I’m angry with you.”
His brow furrows. “You think?”
“Yes. I might be. I need to think. I’m confused right now, and when I’m angry, I prefer to have that anger fully vetted. And I know I can’t have an angry conversation with you right now, anyway. Not before you go back to trial. So I’m going to leave now, you can have your lucky hotdog, and I will see you after court adjourns.”
“Why are you angry?”
“I said I think I’m angry. I need some time to think about what I feel right now. I mean, why would you— No.” I hold up my hands. “No. No. This is not the time. Eat and go back to court and win your case.” I try to walk around him.
He catches my arms and pulls me around to face him, and apparently my body is not one bit angry with this man, considering I’m warm where he touches, and pretty much everywhere I want him to touch. Bottom line, I’m warm. All over. “Talk to me, Cat,” he orders softly, stepping into me.
Now, I’m really warm. “Not now,” I say, wishing he didn’t smell so good and feel so good.
“Now,” he says. “I want to know now.”
“You know what you did.”
He narrows his eyes on me. “Sweetheart, I’m getting to know you, but I’m not used to you walking around things.”
“You have court.”
“Cat,” he bites out.
“Why would you call my publisher?”
“Well, that was fast. I thought I’d have tonight to talk to you about this.”
“This involved me. You talk to me first, not after you do something, so yeah. I’ve clarified how I feel. I’m angry.”
“I wasn’t going to let Dan fuck with your career.”
“So you made my career about you?”
“Of course not. It’s about you. And if you think it’s about me, then that’s you being insecure and letting your past settle between us again.”
“The offer is because you’re involved.”
“They wanted you for Dan, Cat. You were already offered this deal. Only, Dan would have taken your money.”
He’s sort of right. “It’s feels different.”
“Because you’re making it different. It’s not.”
“You should have talked to me.”
“You’re right.”
My brow furrows. “I’m right?”
“Yes. You’re right. Come out of the walkway,” he says, lacing the fingers of one of his hands with mine, before leading me to the back side of the food truck and pulling me close again, hands on my waist. “I should have talked to you, but in my defense, and to be clear: You are my woman now, Cat. I will protect you and I won’t apologize for that, and I don’t know why you would want me to. But I’ll communicate better.”
I’m his woman. I try to get my head around why those possessive words don’t stir a pushback from me. I close my hand around his tie. “No one takes care of me but me.”
“Until you had me.”
“This is still new, Reese. We’re new.”
“And that means what? Because I can tell you, I know what is real. We are. And I know this because I haven’t wanted to take care of anyone but you. You’re different in every way, and I can’t not take care of you.”
A million emotions pound at me, and I decide to just be honest and say what comes to me. “I don’t know how to reconcile how much I like what you just said to me and how much I need you to let me be my own woman.”
“I love who you are, sweetheart, and I don’t want you to change, but you have to let your guard down. Let me in.”
“I am. I have, but we really are new.”
“You’re right. We are. I told you, though, when I want something, I know it, and I am in a one-hundred-percent charge forward.”
“Charge with me, not at me, Reese.”
“Point made. Point understood.” He strokes hair from my face. “Let’s sit down and talk.”
“You need to eat and go back to court, which is why I didn’t want to do this now. We’ll talk tonight.”
“I have time. We have a long break. Let’s grab some food together.”
“Yes. Okay.”
We grab our usual, my bag of nuts and his hotdog, and claim our regular bench. “You made your sister proud this morning,” I say. “You killed it in there.”