Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 137004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
He shrugged. “As deep as it can get between two people who are so against the idea of being bonded. I don’t know how deep that can go, Jaime.”
Neither did she, but she did know that their resistance to being bonded made the relationship about as secure and settled as a feather in the wind. Which meant that Nick was right; Dante could easily leave her if his mate came along. Just the idea of that made her chest ache. She hadn’t thought it had the potential to hurt her that much. “Maybe we should take Nick’s advice and end this now.”
“What? Why?” He twisted in his seat to fully face her.
“I get why you don’t want to find your mate. But let’s say that you did. You’d be curious to know if your position was something she could have accepted. You’d want to talk to her, get a feel for the type of person that she is. It’s only natural. If it turns out that you being Beta is something she can accept, you’ll go to her. I wouldn’t expect anything different.”
“That’s not going to happen. The likelihood of me recognizing her on sight is a million to one anyway. What happened with Nick and Shaya is rare.”
“But if it did, you’d leave me for her. I wouldn’t blame you, but I’d still want to rip your heart right out of your chest with my bare hands. And her heart, for that matter.” His expression turned fierce. “I’d do the exact same thing to any guy who tried to take you from me, even your mate. I told you that.”
“The difference is that nothing could change my mind about mating with him. I’d never do it.
But with you…it could turn out that you’re wrong and she is okay with the Beta thing, and then you’ll be gone and I’ll be alone and it’ll goddamn hurt!” Her voice broke slightly at the end, and she turned her head away to blink the tears from her eyes.
“Look at me, Jaime. Look at me.” Finally, she did. “I want this. I’m keeping you. If you think you have a choice, that’s not my problem.”
“Keeping me? I’m not a stray kitten, I’m a person.”
“If you were a stray kitten, I’d give you a kick up the ass and walk away.” She did a double take. “You’d kick a kitten?”
“I’d kick Hunk if I didn’t think the gremlin would eat my foot.”
“All right, we’re getting off the subject.” Inhaling deeply, she let out a long breath. Her voice was small when she spoke. “I just don’t think I could bear it if I got comfortable in this relationship and then you left me later.” There, she’d set aside her pride and admitted her fear.
He cupped her nape and joined his forehead to hers. “Ah, baby, that’s never going to happen.
I’m not leaving you, and there’s no way you’re leaving me again, so don’t even think it.” He crushed her mouth with his, shooting his tongue into her mouth and coaxing her own to play. Relief filled him when she responded as enthusiastically as she always did. “Like I said, I don’t know how deep this can go. Neither of us wants to be bonded, we test each other’s self-control, I don’t have a good work/play balance, I’m going to drive you absolutely insane trying to control you, and you’re going to drive me insane when you rebel…Maybe it’s fucking doomed, I don’t know. But don’t you want to know?”
No, she didn’t want to know, she had to know. And didn’t that just piss her off. She gave him a curt nod.
“Good. Because nothing and no one will keep me out of your life, Jaime. Not even you.”
CHAPTER TEN
Over the next few weeks, as Dante intensified the training, Jaime came to understand just why Tao expected her to quit. In truth, she had come close to quitting many times. Who wouldn’t? Dante was mean when he was in Trainer mode.
Each session they would begin with the warm-up that always left her feeling as though she’d been strapped to a medieval torture device. Once they had finished their laps of the perimeter, Dante would instruct her to practice more on stealth. When she began to progress, he’d increased the timings until soon he was asking her to remain still for an entire hour. Hard shit.
Only one week into their training, he had introduced her to his assault course. If hell had a playground, that would be it. Not only did she have to navigate through a large number of obstacles, but sometimes it was at extreme heights or even underwater. Then there were the snake pits and the eell pool and the times she needed to play limbo under a wasp nest. Not fun.
A number of times her wolf had wanted Jaime to take a chunk out of him. She had to admit the temptation was there. Come on, what did he think she was, a Gurkha freaking guide?