Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“You take all your clients home with you?” she asked.
“You’re not my client, Bebe!” he yelled.
Huh? Her mind was whirling. Did he mean she wasn’t his client because she’d fired him?
“I . . . I . . .”
A knock on the door made her jump. “Everything all right in there?”
“Yes!” Corbin snapped.
“No!” she said at the same time.
“All right, I’m coming in.”
She peered around Corbin to find Hayes leaning in the doorway. He appeared carefree, but she was getting better at reading the other man.
And that was concern on his face.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “You know that the shepherd’s pie has gone cold, right?”
Shoot. She’d forgotten about dinner! And now she wasn’t even hungry.
“Corbin has lost his mind; that’s what’s going on,” she replied. “He wants me to go home with the two of you.”
“No. Not with the two of us. I want you to go home with me. With. Me.”
Bebe stared up at him in shock. There was something in his face . . . something that she couldn’t quite understand.
Or are you trying to pretend you don’t understand?
“With me, Bebe,” he repeated quietly. Then he crouched in front of her, placing his hands on her thighs. “I want you to come with me. Can you do that?”
“I don’t understand why,” she whispered.
Glancing up, she saw that Hayes had left. Where had he gone? And was he was going to stay there long? Wasn’t he supposed to be rescuing her?
But then Corbin grasped hold of her chin and turned her face toward him.
“Focus on me.”
“I . . . I am.”
“Good girl.” He ran this thumb along her lips.
That wasn’t a friendly gesture.
That was a more-than-friends touch.
And she was in deep, deep trouble because she parted her lips and let him push his thumb slightly into her mouth.
Deep inside her, arousal stirred. Her clit throbbed and she felt herself leaning in toward him.
Touch me more.
Touch me all over.
Please.
This was such a bad idea, yet she couldn’t stop herself. She wanted him so much that it was a daily ache.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered. “I tried to fight my feelings for you. Mostly because you’re the client. But if I bring you back to the Ranch with me, it won’t be as my client. It will be as my girl.”
She closed her eyes for a long moment. Bebe expected to feel worried. Maybe scared.
But all she felt was this sense of relief.
Of longing.
Of rightness.
He removed his thumb from her mouth. “Do you understand what I’m saying, baby? I don’t want to be friends anymore. Well, I want more than that. I want to be your everything. Your protector, your champion, your man. The person who chases away your nightmares. Who stands in front of you when you need my protection. Beside you when you need my hand to hold. And behind you when you need my support and someone to cheer you on.”
Bebe felt the tears slipping down her cheeks. “I’m not sure I’ve ever had that.”
“I know, baby. And I want to give it to you. So let me. Please.”
A sob broke free from her lips.
He really wanted her? He felt the connection between them? The attraction?
Well, he has been calling you baby and darling. They’re not exactly nicknames you give to someone who is just a friend.
“Hey, that wasn’t supposed to make you cry.” He sat on his butt and lifted her down onto his lap. Wrapping his arms around her, he rocked her back and forth.
“It’s not your fault . . . I just . . . I feel overwhelmed. It’s like you’re offering everything I ever wanted. However I’m so scared, Corbin.”
“There’s nothing to be scared of.”
“There’s everything to be scared of.” How did he not see that?
Maybe because he doesn’t know everything about your past? Because you haven’t told him about the asshole.
She just didn’t know how to do that. She was so humiliated by what had happened. Embarrassed that she’d been such an idiot to fall for the asshole’s words. That she’d let him . . . she took a deep breath and let it out.
She owed it to Corbin to explain some of what was going on in her head.
“What are you scared of, Bebe?”
Losing you.
Losing me.
But those words felt too vulnerable as well.
“I’m not . . . I’m not good at relationships.”
He reached down and tilted her face back with his finger under her chin. “You want to expand on that?”
“Not right now.”
“Hmm. I’m going to let that go for the moment, but I will want to know more at some stage.”
“It’s too big a step. Me moving to the Ranch with you.” She started to feel panicky at the idea.
Would she be trapped there? What if she wanted to leave, could she?
“Hey . . . don’t go into your head and start freaking yourself out. Just take one step at a time. I want to take you to Sanctuary Ranch with me because someone attacked you.”