Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“When I was eighteen,” I started again, “my father and I got into a fight. Because I didn’t want to take over running the Taylor empire. It’s sitting behind a desk in two-thousand-dollar cowboy boots that have never seen a day of mud in their life. It’s endless shareholder meetings and pushing papers, signing checks, and just bullshit. That’s not what I wanted to do, and my father threatened to cut me off.”
“What did you want to do?”
“I wanted to be a cowboy. I wanted to be out working the land with the hired hands, but my father wouldn’t hear of it. I couldn’t spend my life like your brother does. Don’t get me wrong, I respect Luc. I know in his way, he is a warrior as much as I am. But he’s a man of talk, a man of planning, and I’m a man of action.”
“So what happened?”
“What happened was my father got me accepted into the top colleges in the country. I had my pick, but the idea of sitting at a desk or a lecture hall listening to people talk made me want to scream. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let that be my life. So instead, on my eighteenth birthday, a month before I graduated high school, I took my GED test, and I enlisted in the Marines.”
“Do you ever regret it?”
“Never once,” I said honestly. “Not even when my father cut me off.”
“But I thought you said—”
“My grandfather set up individual trusts for me and my brother. So he is the one who left me the oil rights and left my brother the entire ranching side of the business. Technically, he actually got the larger share, but he earned it. He stayed, and he runs that ranch far better than I ever could.”
“When you say ranch, do you mean like the Yellowstone?”
Of course, she would compare it to the fucking Yellowstone. Maybe when I got her back home and settled into her new life, I would admit that I loved that show and we could watch it together.
“Yes and no,” I said, trying really hard not to laugh. “Yes, there’s cows and a lot of beautiful land, but it’s not fictional, and to the best of my knowledge we have never branded a single one of our hired hands. They tend to get a little too wily when it comes to human rights violations.”
She rolled her eyes at me and gave me a sweet smile, but there was still something behind those eyes, something she was unsure of.
“Charlotte, princess, look at me.”
Her beautiful Bambi-brown eyes looked up at me, and I could see she was conflicted.
“Are you upset that I have money?” I asked.
“I... I... I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.” My heart ached, and my stomach flipped, and I realized that my wealth might actually be a problem.
“I’m not lying,” she said.
“Do you somehow love me less because I can provide for you?”
“No, I just don’t know what to think.”
“What does that even mean?” I stood and paced from the foot of her bed to the wall with its windowsill covered in white flowers.
“It means this is a lot. I prepared myself for a life that was going to be different, away from the hypocrisy, intrigue, and loose ethics of high society. I was going to learn how to freaking bake bread and buy an alarm clock. But now I don’t know.”
I cupped her cheek. God, she was adorable. “You can still bake bread and buy an alarm clock.”
Her lower lip pushed out in a pout. “It’s not the same. I just... I’m tired, and I’m confused, and I don’t know what to believe, and I still feel like you lied to me, and I just…”
“Let me tell you what is important.” I laced my fingers in her soft hair, tightening them just enough until she felt the pull.
I knew my girl. She liked it when she knew I was in control. She liked just a hint of pain with her pleasure.
“You are mine. That is what’s important. You’re mine to love, to protect, to provide for. I have the means to provide any life that you could ever want. You will want for nothing.”
“At what cost?” she asked, sticking out her chin in defiance.
My cock stirred, and I wanted to remind her what happened to bad girls. “Excuse me?”
“I want for nothing now, but it cost my freedom. Are you going to put me in some gilded cage as well and forbid me from having my own goals?”
Letting go of her hair, I stalked across the room, closed her door and locked it. “You were warned. You will not insult my integrity again, little girl.”
I didn’t want to hurt her.
I didn’t even really want to spank her.
Not when she was still so frail. But I couldn’t let a slight like that slide.