Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Grayden stared at him, lost. He’d never looked at the situation that way before, I realized. The truth was … neither had I. But yes, Dax was right. And the fact that none of this hurt me really showed just how totally over Grayden I was.
“W-what am I supposed to do?” Grayden demanded, defensive. “Take a vow of celibacy?” His gaze sliced back to me. “He’s twisting things, Addie. It’s … I … You know he’s wrong. You know I love you. Don’t you?”
Not bothering to hide my doubt, I steadily stared back at him.
His lips flattened. “You can’t really agree with him on this.”
“Of course she can, because she isn’t stupid.” Dax took another step toward him, his eyes twin points of intensity. “We live with our choices, Grayden. You made yours—it wasn’t her. Like it or not, she’s mine. Any baby that grows in her belly will be mine. The come that’s right now leaking out of her is mine. You have not one thing to do with her. Focus on your kids and the ex-wife you went back to. They’re the ones who need your time and attention.”
It was really wrong how much the whole M word dazzled my hormones when it came out of Dax’s mouth. I should be used to it right now; shouldn’t get all tingly hearing it anymore. But no, I hadn’t yet built an immunity to it.
A crimson flush swept up Grayden’s neck and face. “I hear a lot of ‘She’s mine.’ You know what I don’t hear? I don’t hear you say you care about her. Can you look me in the eye and honestly tell me, hand on heart, that Addie means anything to you? Can you? Seriously?”
Dax leaned toward him slightly. “Yeah. Yeah, I fucking can.” Quiet words that carried the punch of truth and made my heart squeeze.
Grayden’s mouth snapped shut so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d cracked a tooth.
“Now get out of my office,” Dax told him. “And if Mimi tries sending you to do any similar errands, don’t bother obliging her. I have no time for you or her.”
Grayden dragged in a rattling breath. He looked at me, his eyes tormented and his face expectant … like he thought any moment now I’d speak up and insist that, no, he loved me.
Yeah, nah.
Finally, he muttered a curse and then barreled out of the office, not bothering to close the door behind him.
I blew out a long breath. “That was intense, to say the least. I must admit, I was not expecting Mimi to make this move. Has she used an intermediary before?”
Staring at the open door, Dax gave his head a small shake. “No, though I suppose it’s possible that she made the request of someone. This could simply have been the first time anyone agreed.”
I doubted many people would have felt inclined to try involving themselves in Dax’s personal business this way, especially in a matter so sensitive. But, as he’d already covered, Grayden had an ulterior motive. He’d wanted to poke into my life, resenting that he was on the outside of it.
“It’s weird that she sent him to you,” I remarked. “I know you and Grayden were once friends, but it’s no secret that you’re currently at odds with him, his partner, and his stepson. She’ll be well-aware that you wouldn’t want to see Grayden. I have to therefore question where she saw the wisdom in having him advocate on her behalf.”
Dax turned to fully face me. “The answer is: She didn’t. She sent him here because she’s pissed and felt this was a good way to annoy me.”
“Playing games again,” I muttered. Someone really needed to tell her that she was a grown woman. “At least Grayden should now stay off the scene. After all you just said to him, I don’t believe he’ll try contacting me again. You gave him a wake-up call.”
Dax pursed his lips. “I don’t think it was so much what I said that got through to him. It was what you didn’t say. It was that you didn’t step between us, speak in his defense, or swear that I had it all wrong.”
I felt my brow crease. “There was nothing to say in his defense. He was way out of line. And full of shit. In any case, I wouldn’t have spoken up for him. My loyalty is to you.”
Dax’s gaze brushed over my face, warm and unwavering. “Yeah, I know,” he said with an easy confidence.
I swallowed, my throat thickening and my chest squeezing. There were times I thought the day would never come that he fully trusted I’d always stand by and with him. And now here it was, and it hit me far deeper than I’d thought it would or could.
Motherfucker, I was falling hard for this man. Seriously, seriously hard. And fast.