Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
She wasn’t serious about him, and she shouldn’t be.
Arthur took the syringe. “Are you going to let this opportunity go, son? She’s softened up nicely. I thought she might be a problem in the beginning, but I think we all got to her and now she would fight for us, not against us. I also think she wouldn’t run from the fight, so you need to get her ready for it.”
The goat snorted as the syringe went in and then wandered off after Arthur gave it a pat on the back. They moved on to the next.
“I don’t want her to fight at all,” Zach admitted, carrying the big bag Arthur had brought.
“And if your father shows up?” Arthur asked, making his way over the soft ground. It had been raining a lot, and Zach had become accustomed to rain boots. “I know you don’t want her to fight, but shouldn’t she be able to?”
“She’s had some self-defense training,” Zach replied. Not that it seemed to have helped her since she’d been kidnapped by cartel assholes and then by Huisman’s assholes. According to Kala she had tried to fight Lena but had lost. And Lena was a damn therapist. He should think about that. But the idea of rolling around with her made his cock ache. “Maybe Lacey could handle it.”
“Oh, I assure you Lacey could train her, but I think she’ll say this is your responsibility,” Arthur replied. “We might have already talked about this.”
“Really?” Why would they be talking about his relationship? Scratch that. He knew why, but he was trying so hard to keep things solid so they didn’t jeopardize the mission. Missions. Could it be called a mission when it was pretty much his life at this point?
“Well, it’s that or we talk about how The Fabulous Miss K is getting along with the pigs. I swear that donkey needs a therapist,” Arthur said, gently holding the next goat. He ran a hand along its back and gave her a treat before asking for the next syringe.
Zach sighed. “Is there any way you could do it? You know training a person can get…personal.”
Arthur smiled. “Yes, that would be the point, son. Train her and you’ll wind up using that bed for something other than sleeping, and then all the awful sexual tension will be gone.”
Zach heard himself growl. “I’m trying to avoid that.”
“Why?”
A light rain began. That felt right. He was stuck in a muddy field with traumatized goats and a somewhat caustic veterinarian. His brother had gotten married, and he’d spent that time eating butterbeans, watching Brits win shockingly low amounts of money by answering trivia questions and rolling bocce balls, and trying to keep a kitten from killing itself. “Because I’m not going to hurt her again.”
“So it’s not because she isn’t the other woman?”
Now Zach’s growl was fully focused. “I am not in love with Tasha Taggart.”
“But you are in love with Devi Taggart,” Arthur pointed out, checking the goat’s hooves.
“She doesn’t believe me.” And he was pretty sure she never would. He was almost certain she would accept a sexual relationship with him, but that was all it would be. Sex.
“Do you think not having sex with her is helping your case?”
“I don’t want this to be a case. I want it to be a relationship.” He wanted to be fucking normal. He wanted to be back in Dallas getting ready to go out with her, to go to the club with his sub and sit with his friends and not think about anything except how he was going to torture her sweet ass and who would go out with them for late-night waffles this week.
He wanted a future with her.
“You know I’m married, right? I lied to my wife about some of the more dangerous portions of my job.” Arthur seemed to be focused on his patient, but every word was carefully chosen.
“Being that your job at one point was intelligence, that’s understandable.”
“And yet you’ve told Devi almost everything,” Arthur pointed out.
“I didn’t in the beginning, and you know why. I walked into that team thinking they were undisciplined and would fuck up everything and ended up being just like them. They talk more than they should, but they trust the people around them. Even the non-military friends and family are willing to help with anything they ask for. I’ve never known that kind of loyalty. But it’s expected that we keep our loved ones out of the loop. It’s what they signed up for.”
“Well, she didn’t, and she would argue with you about that. We almost broke up. And then my saint of a wife decided that what she needed was time. She couldn’t forgive me, but she also couldn’t stay away. Time is on your side. Even if you don’t have a lot of it. For my wife and I it took the better part of a year, but I won back her trust. I did not do it by acting like her friend. Devi seems to be willing to have relations with you, to pretend things are normal. A funny thing happens when you pretend things are normal. They tend to become normal.”