Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 Maisey Yates (sad books to read .txt) đ
- Author: Maisey Yates
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âThings haveâŠâ
âChanged for you. Because you were lying to me. But I was never lying. I was always being honest, andâŠâ
âExcept for the part where you thought that I was your brother, and you figured that you needed to⊠I donât know, what were you trying to do exactly?â
âGet close to you, enough that I could say, âDo you suppose itâs possible your father cheated on your late mother, and he is perhaps my dad?ââ He barely moved, but a muscle in his cheek flinched. âYeah,â she said. âExactly. Itâs awful. And thereâs really no good way to approach it. At least, not one I could think of. And believe me, I tried. I tried to think of something better than that. So yes, I guess I had ulterior motives too, but I also just want to run my ranch. And I need your help. And you promised me thirty days. Staying here. Free labor.â
âYouâre in my bed.â
âSo, you have a couple options. You get back in bed with me, you go to the bunkhouse with the spiders, or you go to my bed, where I may just end up.â
He sighed heavily, then came back down onto the mattress. âYou donât know what youâre playing with here, little Cricket.â
âThereâs only one way Iâm going to find out, though, isnât there? By continuing to play.â
She took a deep breath, focusing on the tenderness in her chest. âIn all honesty, Jackson, I am just really sick to death of feeling like Iâm fundamentally wrong. And this felt right. SoâŠwhy donât we just keep on?â
âI lied to you,â he said.
âYeah. But so what? I mean, weâre not friends. You lost a bet. End of story. Youâre not my family, so we donât have some kind of mystical connection like I thought we might. We are notâŠanything. So what does it matter? Your plan wouldâve only worked if you could have talked me out of my dream, and quite frankly, if you could have talked me out of it, I wouldâve deserved what I got.â
âIs that really what you think?â
âYes. As it is, you were never even close to making me second-guess it. Because you know whatâs harder than figuring out how to do chores and work a ranch? Growing up in a mausoleum. An altar to your father, when you donât even like or respect the man. Being made to feel like you have to fit in, when you donât particularly want to, or see the benefit of it. Yeah. Thatâs hard. And, well⊠I decided not to do it. I decided to figure this out. So I did. So I took it upon myself to figure this out. A few early mornings werenât going to scare me off.â
âYouâre a whole thing, arenât you, Cricket?â
âNot by choice. It just kind of seems to be the way I am.â
He lay down next to her, and gathered her up against his body. She put her hand on his chest, tracing shapes over the broad expanse of muscle. âYou seem like a man who might be able to handle a whole thing. And you kinda make me feel like less of one. Or at least likeâŠthis might be the place for it.â
âSure, if you want to play⊠You know Iâm here to play. But playing is all I got.â
âThatâs okay. Iâm trying to figure out my life. Iâm trying to figure out what I want to be. Who I am. What it means⊠James is my father, most likely.â
âAre you going to ask your mother directly about it?â
She nodded. âI am. Because I need to know the truth. Iâm afraid this is probably it.â
âSometimes, you have to contend with things you donât like about your parents. And I grant you, your dad is a hell of a lot worse than mine.â
âYour dad seems⊠Well, I mean, to me he really seems not bad at all.â
âHeâs not, I suppose. But his relationship with my mom⊠I wouldnât have been surprised if heâd cheated.â
âIâm sorry.â
âNone of itâs your fault.â
âWell. I kind of put you in an awkward situation tonight.â
He shrugged. âMy dadâs own behavior actually put him in that situation.â
âFor what itâs worth⊠I used to look at your family and think⊠Well, I really wished that I could be part of it.â
âI guess thatâs the thing, then. I never wished that I was part of your family. I suppose thatâs the difference.â
âYeah, there is imperfect, and thereâs dysfunctional. Believe me, thereâs kind of an important distinction between the two.â
âWe might be skirting the edge of dysfunctional, here,â he said.
âYeah, but I think we can both handle it. And weâre not dragging anyone else into it.â
He huffed. âTrue.â
âMight as well enjoy this. I have twenty-one days left of indentured servitude from you.â
And then suddenly she found herself pinned to the mattress, his large body over hers, his eyes glittering. âMight as well,â he growled.
And then, they were done talking for the rest of the night.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jackson felt like an ass. He should have left last night when heâd said that he would, but Cricket had looked at him like she was a wounded puppy, and he couldnât bring himself to do it. Still, there hadnât been much of an excuse to stay. Except that he was weak. And human, and basically just a man. And she had presented a temptation he couldnât turn away from.
Though it wasnât just being a man, that was the thing, because if it was, then it wouldâve been about her just being a woman, and fundamentally, he could have turned down any other woman. It was Cricket that was the problem. Cricket was a damn problem.
He was marinating on that as he drove into town for more lumber the next day. She had been up early, at the crack of dawn, without so much as a complaint, while he had been the one whoâd had a hell of
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