Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
My gut feeling told me this was coming.
I was right last night.
Chapter Four
Tyler
Last night…
The room isn’t quite as dark as my father’s heart was when he was living, moonlight streaming through the windows of the bedroom I now share with Bella. I never thought I’d share a bed, let alone a life with a woman, but Bella has changed me, and for the good in every way.
I sit in the chair in the corner with the pup knocked out at my feet, a pair of loose-fitting sweats pulled over my naked body, and a drink in my hand. Just a few feet away, Bella is sleeping like an angel in the bed, her long, blonde hair draped over my pillowcase. I should be in the bed with her, holding her, but all I can think about is my father’s will and his trickery. There is no way he’ll allow me to just be happy with a woman and inherit, no matter what his will might have indicated. Not that I believe he thought me any more capable of love than himself, but he was anything but short-sighted. He’d have a plan to ensure no matter where I turned his hell waited on me. There has been no time in my life that he ever just let me just be happy, and the wake of his death is no different.
Bella makes me happy.
He’ll have a plan to destroy her, because her demise is my demise.
I have to protect her. I have to find out what devious plan my father has for me and do so now. With a flip of my wrist, I down my drink and refill my glass. The pooch whimpers for my attention, and I give her a rub. Damn, I love this dog. How did I go from alone and liking it that way to this? Of course, Bella is the reason.
As if she hears her name in my mind, she shifts in the bed and rolls over, her hands reaching for me before she murmurs, “Tyler,” and sits up.
“I’m here,” I say, and she blinks into the darkness.
I know the moment her vision adjusts to the darkness and her eyes land on me. It’s damn near impossible to believe just how much I feel for this woman. How aware I am of her, not just physically but emotionally.
“I see,” she murmurs softly.
“What does that mean, Bella?” I set my glass down on the table next to me.
It’s empty, of course, but I’m no alcoholic. Dash tried to shove me into that box, and so did Bella at one point, but I couldn’t even find peace in a mind-numbing addiction. There was no escape, until I found Bella. No, until Bella became mine. Years of knowing her and not daring to touch her about drove me insane.
Literally, I almost lost my mind a few times.
She throws the blanket aside, settles her feet on the floor, and my T-shirt she’s taken to wearing every night slides down her body. There’s something about her in my shirt, as if she needs me touching her at all times.
I sure as fuck want to touch her, to lose myself and all this bullshit by burying myself inside her, but damn it, it’s not that simple. Not tonight. Not when there’s a clawing sensation inside me that tells me that I’m going to hurt her, or she’s going to get hurt because of me. Logically, I know this is my father screwing with my head. He was a pro manipulator, and I was his favorite victim. My hands press to my thighs, and I silently curse in my mind, that’s all about the maze I’m navigating with an invisible game board.
Bella settles on her knees in front of me, staring up at me with those sky-blue eyes that can’t be muted by shadows when they’re imprinted on my mind. “Hi,” she murmurs.
Normally I’d say “Hi” back and tease her about a greeting right here in our bedroom but right now, her raspy, sleep-laden voice slides through me, and it is, as she is, the light in the darkness that is the soul of my father’s son. How could my soul be anything but dark when my father was a monster who is still my flesh and blood? But while yes, Bella is the light that I desperately needed in my life, darkness eventually devours the light, and that means her.
Bella’s hands come down on my legs, and I’m already hot and hard, with nothing but a pair of sweatpants and my T-shirt between us.
“Tyler?”
There’s a question in her voice now, which says she knows me as well as I know her. Hell, she’s the only person in my lifetime who has really known me. And she’s aware I’m not in a good place right now. She also knows to let me talk when I’m ready. That’s why the question.