Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Would he fire her?
Apologize.
“I’m so sorry,” she said hastily. “I didn’t mean to tell you what to do. Please don’t fire me.”
He eyed her curiously. “You shouldn’t worry about me firing you. What you should worry about is me spanking you.”
Her mouth dropped open. Seriously?
“I won’t ever fire you, Faith,” he murmured. “No matter what.”
Good to know she guessed.
“I thought I’d made that clear already. Now you just have to worry about me punishing you in other ways.”
Right.
Yikes.
“And you don’t need to apologize for what you just said. I wouldn’t fire you for caring about me.” His lips twitched. “That little display of temper was actually quite cute. I’m surprised you didn’t stomp your foot.”
Her face was bright red, she just knew it was. “I never have temper tantrums.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Hmm,” he mused. “Perhaps you never felt safe before to let your temper out.”
That couldn’t be true. She always felt safe with her parents, right?
Except . . . with three older brothers and her parents both working full-time on the farm, there wasn’t always a lot of time left for her, was there?
For some children, that might mean they’d throw tantrums to get noticed.
But Faith had tried to be the good girl. The one that made life easier for her parents.
So they’d love her.
Jesus. That was ridiculous. Of course they loved her.
“I . . . that’s not true.”
“Hmm. Remember rule two.”
Honesty. Right. That was a tough rule to follow.
“Actually, we should talk about rule four since you just broke it.”
Rule Four. Safety. He’d messaged that one to her last night.
Crap.
“Didn’t take you long to break that rule, Little Blossom,” he drawled.
She looked around the limo so she didn’t have to look at him. “Do you own this limo?”
“No, it’s hired.”
“But you use your own driver?” she asked.
“Yes. Although I’m thinking that might have been a bad idea.”
“There’s nothing between me and Steven,” she told him hastily. “We’re friends.”
“I don’t like you being friends with him.”
“You are not going to tell me who I can and can’t be friends with, Reuben.”
He shot her a hard look. “Hard to be friends with someone who is no longer around.”
He wasn’t threatening to kill Steven. . . was he?
No.
“I’ll send him to work in Antarctica if I have to.”
She breathed out a sigh of relief. Shoot. What was wrong with her? Why did her mind immediately go to Reuben threatening to kill him?
They slowed down for traffic.
“You’re not sending him away, Steven is an excellent driver. Besides, I can be friends with someone without being interested in them.”
“And what about him?”
She threw her hands in the air. “Steven isn’t interested in me. He has a girlfriend.”
Reuben’s eyebrows rose. “He does?”
“How do you not know this when he’s worked for you for years?”
He shrugged. “Lack of interest?”
Faith sighed. He was hopeless sometimes.
“You’re not dictating my friends. Hard limit,” she told him.
“There are no limits between us.”
“That’s not true, because this is one.”
“We’ll see.”
Dear Lord.
“You’re gonna be lucky if I don’t snap and smother you in your sleep one day,” she muttered.
“You’re too sweet to do that.”
Ha! Everyone had their breaking point. And she was fairly certain that Reuben Jones was hers.
Then he drew her close to him and cupped the side of her face with his hand.
His lips brushed hers. And she tried to hold out. She really did.
She managed it for all of five seconds before her lips parted and he slid his tongue into her mouth to tease her. Play with her.
“I have been dying to taste these lips again,” he whispered. “The memory has been torturing me these last few days.”
She felt the same. He kissed her again and her whole body tingled in response, wanting more of him.
“Tempted to fucking skip this banquet and just take you home with me.”
Crap.
She wanted that too. Only she knew it was a bad idea.
“I still don’t want anyone looking at you. Then again, I never want anyone looking at you.” He studied her.
“Do you like the makeup and clothes? I don’t know if I’ll ever get my hair to look this nice again on my own. Cammie spent hours getting me ready.”
“I like it.”
Her stomach dropped. She guessed she could make more of an effort with her hair and makeup. Her clothes.
“But you don’t really look like my Faith,” he admitted. “So while I think you look beautiful, I also like when you’re dressed in one of your cute dresses with your butterfly clip in your hair.”
“It’s in there,” she admitted with a shy smile, pointing at her hair.
“What?”
“I wanted to wear it, even though Cammie told me that I couldn’t. I couldn’t come to such a big function without it.” It was her good luck charm. “So it’s in the middle of my hair-do. I had her hide it.”
“Don’t do that again.”
Huh? Was he honestly worried that it would slip out and someone would see it?