Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
“Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” I grinned.
Dallas rolled his eyes. “He’s been dying to show this shit off. Just watch.”
I grinned, turning to the edge of the pools and moving a rock aside to show the small, hidden, wood-paneled door. Stella raised a questioning brow before I pulled it open with a flourish.
She laughed.
“Okay, now I’m impressed.”
The door opened to a small fridge full of beer. Yeah, I was pretty fucking proud of myself for that one. Living up on the mountain had made us pretty damn handy, and hiding the mini-fridge next to the spring and running a power cable down from the tower had been one of my first projects.
I cracked three, passing one to her and one to my brother before I raised a toast.
“To the wedding.”
Stella grinned, knocking her bottle to mine. “To the wedding. May they be forever happy.”
We sipped our beers, and I could see that she was mulling something over. Dallas beat me to it though.
“What is it, beautiful?”
She took a deep breath. “Look, you don’t have to answer, but I was just wondering why you’re here.”
“For the wedding.”
She turned and rolled her eyes at me as I grinned.
“No, I mean living on Blackthorn.”
I sighed. “It’s a long story.”
“That’s okay,” she said quickly. “You don’t have to—”
“I want to,” I said quietly.
I glanced at my brother, who nodded. I turned back to her, sitting across the small steaming pool from me with the water swirling around her breasts and the steam curling around her.
Damn, she was beautiful.
And then I told her our story. I told her about our dad, and about Uncle Richard, and stealing our father’s company away. I told her about his leverage over the board, how he’d tarnished our names, and about how we’d left to get away from it all.
…I left out the part about how there may have been an ongoing open investigation into us about our father’s death.
Fuck, I don’t know why I did it. Maybe I was scared of freaking her out, or of her looking at us differently. As strong as I was, and as firm as I’d lived my life, I was scared — more scared in that moment than I’d ever been before. And I was scared of losing her, so soon after we’d found her.
I looked at Dallas, and I could see the same war going on inside his own head. And I knew, even if we both hated ourselves for withholding it from her, we both knew it wasn’t quite the time to spring that on her. We would, I knew that, just not yet.
Some things just took time.
When I was done with the part about coming back here to Blackthorn and buying this land to get away from our uncle, she was quiet for a long time. Finally, she let her breath out slowly, her eyes wide as she shook her head.
“That’s so fucked up.”
“It is what it is,” Dallas growled. “And someday, we’ll deal with him. For now though, we’re okay here. For now, this place and this mountain, and…” He locked his eyes on her. “And you are all we need.”
Stella blushed that adorable shade of pink and quickly took a sip of beer.
“So what about you? Why are you here?” I held a hand up, seeing that impish glint in her eye. “And do not say ‘the wedding,’ I already used that one.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “I guess I just needed to get away too. I’ve just had too many hits recently, you know?” She sighed. “I got cheated on a year ago by this guy I’d been with for a little while.”
My jaw tensed, and I could feel my hand curling into a fist under the water. The thought of any other man laying a finger on this girl made my fucking blood boil. And the thought of some piece of shit cheating on her? And hurting her?
Fuck, I wanted to kill him for touching her. But I wanted to piss on his fucking grave for the second part.
She told us everything — how the piece of fucking garbage had been banging her damn secretary. What a fucked up cliché. But damn there was even more to Stella than we knew. Her being a hotshot lawyer made me grin, and even if she’d been passed over for a job she deserved, she’d stuck with it and kept working her ass off for the firm. I respected the shit out of that.
She paused, and I could see her mulling it over, but then she told us the rest — about wanting kids, and about the failed IVF treatments.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, beautiful,” I said quietly, sliding around the edge of the pool and wrapping my arm around her. My heart hurt, because hers hurt. It was that simple.