Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
He looked at me then and said, “If there’s ever one you want to do, tell me. I’ll make it work with my schedule.”
I blinked at him in shock. “You’d do that?”
He caught my face with one hand, wrapped his fingers around my jaw, and pulled me in close before saying, “In a single heartbeat.”
• • •
Month 5
“What job are you doing this time?” I asked as we got in the truck instead of getting on the motorcycle.
I looked in the back seat and blinked when I saw the entire area full of fishing stuff.
“We’re going to Broken Bow, Oklahoma,” he said. “And I’m going to teach you how to trout fish.”
“Umm,” I said. “I’ve never fished a day in my life.”
His lips quirked. “I know.”
The trip took less than two hours.
We arrived at a tiny little cabin in the middle of the woods and I felt my heart skip a beat at the beautiful river that rushed behind the cabin.
Traveling as much as I had, I’d seen some beautiful sights in my life, but the one I was seeing right then was one of the best.
“Wow,” I breathed. “It’s gorgeous.”
Hannibal wrapped his arm around my shoulder and said, “Do you want to unpack and get stuff inside, or do you want to go fish?”
Pfft.
“Go fish, obviously.”
It was the best thing ever.
What was even better was the smile on Han’s face each time I caught a fish and showed it to him.
“You happy, baby?” he asked after I released my latest catch.
I looked at the fish as it swam away, then back at him.
“I didn’t realize what it was like to feel like you can breathe.”
CHAPTER 22
Did you hear about the scarecrow that won an award? He was outstanding in his field.
-Text from Hades to Hannibal
HANNIBAL
“Do you ever think that this is the wrong choice, and maybe we should leave before we fuck it all up?” Hades asked from beside me.
I looked over at her.
“You need to talk to your family, baby,” I urged.
She didn’t want to talk to them any more than I wanted her talking to them.
All of them had called her every single day, twice a day, since they’d found out she wasn’t actually a part of them. Hell, even Keene had called me to try to find her.
“I mean, I realize that,” she said. “But maybe we could do it and not confront Benji about his stalking on the same day?”
She was nervous.
I’d give her that.
I mean, it was at a wedding of all places that we were doing this confronting thing. Benji’s wedding, of all possible outcomes
“It’s a good idea,” I disagreed. “It’s been six months of us trying to track him down and lure him to an event that they were going to be at.”
And it was true.
For the last six months, since Hades had given me the ridiculous rule that I couldn’t hurt Benji, or force him to do anything against his will, we’d been playing this cat and mouse game with him.
Though, to be one hundred percent honest, she had a good reason for requesting that rule.
Benji was getting married. To an FBI agent. An FBI agent that had absolutely no clue what kind of man that she was marrying. An FBI agent that came from a long line of FBI agents. An FBI agent that had so much brass in her family line that she might as well have the world at her back.
“I don’t want to hear the same argument, Hannibal Allan Peters,” she warned.
I offered her a smirk. “Yes, ma’am, Hades Pearl.”
She offered me a dazzling smile.
One that took my breath away.
God, she was gorgeous.
And holy hell, was it time to admit that I couldn’t believe I ever saw her as plain. No, she wasn’t plain. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and if someone couldn’t see that, they were fuckin’ blind.
And, to distract her from what she was currently thinking—IE everything bad that could go wrong today with her family as well as Benji and his wedding—I broached a subject that we hadn’t touched on before.
Not in the six months that we’d been in this weird seriously dating, but not actually married, kind of thing.
“Do you want to go get married?” I asked.
She looked over at me sharply, her mouth all but hanging open.
“What?” she asked a little bit too loudly.
“Do you want to get married?” I repeated. “To me.”
Her mouth dropped open impossibly more as she floundered for a short moment.
Then, with a grin, she said, “Yes.”
Just like that. Yes.
My heart started to pound. “Right now?”
She twirled a lock of hair around her finger as she said, “I’ve done crazier things.”
We came to a stop right outside the large open field right in front of some tents.
The sisters were all away.
At least, all of them but Val, Zip and then Keene.