Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 35767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 179(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 179(@200wpm)___ 143(@250wpm)___ 119(@300wpm)
“Are you okay?” she asked. “I think you’re going to make the grass scared and die you’re glaring at it that much.”
He forced himself to remain calm and shook his head. “Nothing. Eat your sandwich.”
“Yes, boss.” She winked at him, and he knew without a doubt he was in trouble.
She’d gotten under his skin, and there was no way out, not for him.
All he wanted to do was protect her, and the only way to do that was to let her go.
Wasn’t it?
****
For the past week, Luca had been in a horrible mood. Mavis stared across the dining room table and stared at the door that he’d just stormed out of. Last night was the first time he’d sent her back to her room.
The rejection stung.
She’d been sneaking into his bed, which wasn’t sneaking at all—it was pretty blatant as she’d always been snuggled up under the covers by the time he arrived.
Her breakfast of poached eggs, bacon, and fried tomatoes was half-eaten. Picking up the plate, she took it into the kitchen.
Susan was back, and Mavis had noticed she’d been here every single day the past week.
“You’re not hungry?” she asked.
“No.”
“Ah, okay.”
Susan didn’t look at her, and Mavis leaned against the counter.
“Do you know what is wrong with him?”
“Sorry, dear, what?”
She stared at Susan, and for the first time since she moved here, she felt like a child. Gritting her teeth, she wondered if that was Luca’s problem.
He finally saw her as a child.
Not that she was one. Far from it.
“Nothing.” She headed to the back door.
“Where are you going?” Susan asked.
“For a walk.” She really needed to clear her head.
Closing the door gently behind her, she walked down the steps and took a few moments to breathe in the crisp air. The days and nights were getting colder. She loved this time of year when the foliage was pushed back, bare, and nothing could touch it. The trees had shed their leaves, and what was once ripe, full, and beautiful now held a tinge of darkness. Of something morbid and sad.
Pushing those thoughts from her mind, she made her way through the garden, taking time to stop here and there to just get her rapidly beating heart under control.
Sitting alone for breakfast wasn’t new for her.
Had Luca bored with her already?
“Men only want one thing, and when they get it, they don’t care about anyone or anything. You’re just a thing to them, Mavis. A useless piece of worthless trash, and you’re not even pretty, so they won’t even come back for a second helping.”
Even with her mother dead, she heard the cackle that followed something like that. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried to forget her mother’s vile words, she couldn’t. In moments like this, where she didn’t have a clue what she’d done or who she’d hurt, they came back to haunt her, to scare her, and there was no fighting it.
How could she fight it?
This was her life now.
Tears filled her eyes, and she tried not to let them fall.
“For fuck’s sake, Mavis, I don’t have time for this.”
She’d only asked him if he wanted to come out for a swim with her. He’d told her just the other day as they were working in the yard that the pool was heated and any time she wished to go for a swim she was more than welcome.
He didn’t work all that much, and when he did it was often on his laptop while she rested her head against his knee. He’d always balance the laptop on the arm of the sofa while his other hand ran fingers through her hair.
She hadn’t made him do that.
He’d done that all on his own, and now she felt like a bitch for having him do that. She never stopped him from working.
She kept on walking, needing a distraction from the tears that for some reason wouldn’t stop.
The last thing she wanted to do was cry. Crying never solved anything. Crying just made people laugh.
She found herself back near the pool house and pool.
Alone.
Just like that night when it was raining.
The night she lost her virginity and her heart.
Luca didn’t want her anymore.
The first tears started to fall, and she hated them.
Luca had shown her how to pull back the pool cover. He always had people coming out to service one thing or another. Since he had an idea for the rest of the ranch and the spare fields, he’d been talking to several ranch hands and business owners. She’d been there in the background, listening as he talked business.
He knew what he was doing. He wasn’t a fool, even though some of the men had tried to treat him as such. She’d hated it when men had assumed she was his daughter.
If she wore lower shirts that showed off a great deal of her cleavage, they never doubted that she was old enough to be by his side. Never had she hated her age more than those moments when they talked family and daughters.