Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
With that, Tom jogs out, and I pay no attention to the sounds of him collecting his things outside. That feral, protective instinct is still running through me, making me hold Dahlia tightly to me.
She smooths her palms over my chest and tilts her head back to look up at me.
“You didn’t need to do that,” she starts, and when I open my mouth to insist that I definitely fucking did, she smiles at me, rendering me speechless. Damn, this girl is like some sort of magical creature with the spell she’s cast on me. “But…I kind of liked it.”
I blink at her. “You liked it?”
“Yeah, the whole ‘She’s mine and I’ll protect her no matter what’ thing.” She giggles. “It was kind of hot. And it feels nice to know you’re all possessive. You really are a big grizzly bear, aren’t you?”
A rush of something unfamiliar floods me, warm and tingling and making its way straight to my heart. “I’m whatever you want me to be.”
Dahlia’s grin rivals the damn stars for how much she shines. “And if I want you to be mine? Even if my brother will lose his shit if he finds out?”
Fuck Harry and whatever he thinks. It won’t be pretty when we have to explain this to him—the fact that I’m head over fucking heels for his sister who’s near enough twenty years younger than me—but I don’t care.
“Then I’m yours,” I tell her honestly, kissing her fiercely.
8
DAHLIA
“Where are we going?” I ask Dylan as we climb into his car to head into town. After we stopped our work on the house for the day, he told me to get changed into something nice and be ready to leave at seven, but he didn’t tell me why.
“You deserve to be taken on a proper date,” he says gruffly, like he’s a little uncomfortable at the thought of willingly going out in public. I’ve noticed how much he values his space away from everyone, except me apparently. It gives me a rush of pride knowing I’m special to him in that way.
I melt a little at his words. “A date?” I repeat, bouncing a little in my seat, my hand engulfed in his larger one. He drives with one hand on the wheel so he doesn’t have to let go of me. “Where?”
“You said you were hungry and you need a break from that house. You haven’t had time to explore the town properly so…”
“You’re taking me out for dinner?” I ask eagerly. I am starving. We spent all day clearing the kitchen and knocking the wall down between there and the living room to open up the space, so when the kitchen parts are delivered in a few days, there’ll actually be space for it all to go in. We worked over lunch, and since I hardly have the space or place to put groceries away, it means I haven’t eaten anything since the croissant Dylan brought with our coffees this morning.
“Not letting my girl go hungry.”
The way he says my girl makes my heart so summersaults. I’ve never been important enough to anyone before to have them claim me, and I squeeze his hand, grinning like a mad woman.
It shouldn’t be possible to fall so hard and so fast for a man I’ve only gotten to know over the last week. But then again, Dylan has never been a stranger to me. It’s like my heart knows his, like I’ve been waiting for him all this time.
“Have you been here often?” I ask as he slows the car to a stop outside the only restaurant in town.
“Rarely,” Dylan says. “I…stick to my own company. Until now. Until you.”
I force myself to look away from him as we get out, just so I don’t launch myself at him in public. Does he know how much his sweet words mean to me? Later, once we’re alone, I’ll show him, but for now, I need to focus on my growling stomach.
I’ve walked past this building to the coffee shop a few times, but I’ve never spent that much time exploring the area, so I’ve done little more than glance its way.
It’s getting dark, and the sign hanging above the front window is lit up, reading The Stag and Bear. There’s fairy lights strung along the inside of the windows, giving the whole place a warm glow, and the smell of food wafting out of the door makes my mouth water.
“I’m honored you like me enough to brave the public then,” I tease Dylan as he holds the door open for me.
In retaliation, he smacks my ass as I step in front of him to go inside. “Hey!” I squeak, feeling my face burn as I glance around to check nobody else saw that. Nobody’s looking our way, but my cheeks are still flushed anyway.