Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Cat squeezes my arm. “I’ll go. I’ll check on you tomorrow.” She stands and hurries toward the door, and Reid steps back to allow her to pass before walking toward me, and sitting down next to me. His hands come down on my face and he tilts my gaze to his. “You have control, Carrie, in ways I never thought I’d let anyone have control.” His voice is low, raspy. Affected. “And I understand the argument that I might have the control, I do, but it’s you who does. All you.” He rests his forehead on mine. “When I think of you in that building, and how easily you could have died, it tears me apart.” He pulls back to look at me. “Stay, Carrie. I want you to stay, but I’m not going to pressure you. I need you to want to be here. And I hate that the war between our fathers makes you distrust me and us to this degree.”
I shiver with the impact of his words, and all the emotional punches this night has given me, but there’s so much I want to say to him. I never get the chance. “I’ll run you a hot bath,” he says, and then he’s standing and walking away, as if he shut down, pulled back in some way.
It’s that wall he puts between us, even as he confesses to needing me, that makes me hold back. That’s what scares me. It makes me think there’s more to all this hell around us where he’s concerned than I know. I want to live with Reid, but I can’t live with secrets and lies.
Chapter sixty-four
Reid
Iwalk downstairs, after having started Carrie her promised bath, when Gabe calls, “It wasn’t dad. I’m certain of it. You should have seen his face when I told him Carrie was moving in with you. I also called a friend who works at the fire department to verify what we’d been told. It was a machine in the restaurant and Carrie’s floor is a complete loss.”
I wait to digest that, to feel relief, but I’m not capable of that emotion at present. “Thanks, Gabe.”
“How is she?”
“As expected.”
“Right. I’ll check in.”
We disconnect and I’m standing at the damn bar in the corner of the living room and don’t know how I got there. That doesn’t happen to me. I press my hands on the cushioned counter and let my chin rest on my chest. I just blamed my father for her not trusting me when it was me who was the asshole in the beginning. Me, who still hasn’t told her why because it had nothing to do with her being a West and me a Maxwell. I have to tell her. If I want her to stay, I have to tell her what I’ve never shared with anyone. I have to trust her that much. There’s no escaping that reality and I really don’t want to escape, not if it means losing Carrie, and it might. I push off the counter and grab a bottle of wine and two glasses and head back upstairs.
Carrie’s not in the bedroom so I set the glasses on the nightstand and fill them both before entering the bathroom. Carrie is neck deep in bubbles that smell like my body wash, and damn, I like her in my tub and using my soap, which only drives home the conversation we need to have. Her lashes lift when she hears me enter. “Hey.”
“How’s the bath?”
“Good. It’s amazing how a hot bath can solve so much. Just getting rid of that chill helps so much.”
I sit down on the ledge next to the tub. “Wine?”
“Yes, please.” She lifts her wet, bubble covered hand and accepts it. She sips and nods her head in approval. “Good. Don’t ask the price, right? Just enjoy.” She sets the glass on the other side of the tub.
“Exactly. Gabe called a friend at the fire department.”
“And?”
“It really was a machine in the restaurant.”
Her eyes narrow. “You thought it was your father.” It’s not a question.
“I was plotting his certain death quite literally, yes.”
“I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Maybe I haven’t known his evil to the extent you have, but I saw the intelligence in his eyes. An act that hurts others, that would come back on him, would put him in jail. And then he wouldn’t get to wear his suits at inappropriate times.”
I laugh, and considering my state of mind, only this woman could make that happen right now. “Very true. Very true.” I lean in and kiss her, but I pull back, the laughter fading into my mission, into the truth. “I know I was an asshole to you, but it had nothing to do with the company or our names.”
“Then what? What are you telling me?”
“That’s a complicated answer, but one you deserve.” I lean back. “Enjoy your bath and your wine. We can talk later.” I exit the bathroom and I grab the bottle of wine and my glass before walking into my escape room off the bedroom, where I sit down.