Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
And I tell my dad, “I’m not like you.”
I would never hurt people I love with a lie, and that’s what’s happening now. I’m hurting him, my mom, aunts and uncles—and even Jane. I can handle the world’s doubt. That’s commonplace. But I can’t live with theirs.
Go get the truth.
I turn to the door. And I suddenly freeze.
Farrow approaches me. Already inside the cabin, his lips rise like I know.
41
FARROW KEENE
I heard everything from outside, and about midway through I knew what I needed to do. I feel six incredulous, confused gazes sweep my sudden presence. I don’t confront them yet.
Before Maximoff repeatedly asks are you sure you want to do this? I catch his wrist, standing right by his side.
Very softly, I whisper, “Your morality is rubbing off on me.” I feel sick putting Maximoff Hale in a place where he’d be forced to lie to these people.
His family. Who need him.
Who trust him.
Who love him.
He’d be a worse man if he trampled all over them with a lie, and he’s made me a better one because I don’t even hesitate to unleash the truth. I don’t care about the career consequences, and we’re strong enough to survive the blowback. At the end of the road, all I know is that I’m protecting and preserving the very essence of who he is.
And I’d do it five hundred times over.
I nod to Maximoff to go ahead. Tell them.
He fists my shirt and tugs me to his chest. In a swift, pulse-pounding moment, he has two firm hands on my neck, and his mouth meets mine. Not wavering, not second-guessing—his pride for this second and for us lifts his carriage like he’s sky-scraping tall.
He has to feel my lips rising. I can’t restrain a smile. I wouldn’t, even if I was ordered to. Our bodies pull together in a deeper, slower kiss, and I hook my arm around his broad shoulders. His hand slides through my black hair, his desire and hunger urging my mouth open again. Pulsating my veins and heart. All things I’ve felt with Maximoff before.
He went all in.
All in with me.
I recognize like everyone else has to: this is his first kiss with an audience. If they don’t believe him now, then they’re just in denial.
When we finally break the kiss, we exchange one headstrong, stubborn-as-hell look that says, we’re in this shit together, and we’re going to get out together. No matter what.
We confront his stunned family side-by-side, my arm wrapped around his lower back.
“There’s the truth,” Maximoff says. “And I’m not fucking lying.”
His over-protective dad stakes an icy glare into me. And only me. “Either you’re the best goddamn bodyguard and you’re protecting him with a cover-up—or you’re the shittiest bodyguard and you’re sleeping with my son.”
I don’t miss a beat. “I’m sleeping with your son.”
Lo seethes, his gaze butchering me. I expected that one, but all the respect and trust I’d built and earned with him throughout the years just rips right out of my body.
He rotates to his brother. Ryke jumps down from the top bunk before his wife can catch his shoulder.
Maximoff points angrily at them. “Farrow isn’t the enemy. He’s my fucking boyfriend!”
I try not to smile. Damn, that felt good to hear.
Connor Cobalt commands the floor with one step forward. “Let’s clear the air before the overreacting begins.” He raises a calming hand towards Maximoff and me. “We believe you’re together, but the world won’t. Not now. The media will run with the Moffy/Jane love affair story.”
It’s more salacious.
“Setting that aside,” Connor says, “we now need to deal with the private, security issue of a bodyguard having sex with a client—”
“My son,” Lo sneers at Connor. “I swear to God, Connor, don’t treat this like it means nothing—”
“Dad,” Maximoff interjects. “I’m an adult. We’re two consenting adults. There’s nothing wrong—”
Ryke points at me. “He’s your fucking bodyguard, Moffy!”
Lily pushes through the wall of men and stands right…in front of me. Green eyes pained. I tried not to wonder what this moment would look like.
Me hurting the one woman I spent years protecting.
But I was on Alpha for three years, surrounded by all six of these people—fuck, I knew how they’d react to any bodyguard sleeping with their children.
I knew there’d be condemnation. I knew that in their eyes, I broke a sacred rule.
“I matched you with my son.” Her chin tries to shake, but she sucks in a breath, raises her head, and pokes my chest with a mad finger. “I trusted you, Farrow. You looked me in the eye and you promised me that you’d protect him.”
“I did,” I say from my core. “I am—”
“You took advantage of our son,” Lo cuts me off. “That’s not protecting him.” I force myself not to roll my eyes. I’ve been there for Maximoff Hale every fucking day, and I definitely didn’t coerce him into sucking my cock.