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“Something I learned along the journey of my life is that it’s okay to love yourself enough to know you deserve to be treated with respect and dignity no matter what situation you are in. Even if you make mistakes, it doesn’t define who you are. You can always pick the pieces back up. And you can always come back home,” she told him.
“You are a one-of-a-kind woman, Dakota Forbes,” he said with a smile.
“I had to define myself. When you grow up in a house full of alpha personalities, you learn a thing or two about being a unique individual. I was loved, and I always knew that, so it made feeling confident about myself that much easier.”
“Not a lot of people have those same convictions. I’ve seen the worst of the worst in life and the horrible things people can do to those they say they love. It changes how you look at people and situations,” he told her.
“I choose to see the gold at the end of the rainbow. It makes sleeping a whole lot easier when you don’t have all that negativity clogging up your head.”
“I might have to keep you around to remind me of all of this,” he said with a smile. The seriousness in his eyes scared her the smallest bit. This was all moving at the speed of sound, and she didn’t know what to think about it.
“When life gives you lemons, you make tea,” she said.
He looked at her, confused for a moment, and then burst into laughter. She scowled at him. “Are you laughing at me?”
“Not at all,” he said, still chuckling. “I just never know what’s going to come from those pretty lips of yours.”
“It’s not the lips you should be worried about; it’s the teeth,” she assured him, snapping her jaw shut and showing her pearly whites to him. “They are sharp.”
“Hmm, I might need to test that theory out,” he said.
“Aw, there’s that confidence that’s so damn sexy,” she told him.
“My family can wait,” he said, his eyes dilating as they drifted to the opening of her robe.
Dakota chuckled as she stood up and took a step back. Ace was on his feet in less than a second. “You’ll have to catch me first,” she said before she took off running.
Ace was there before she’d made it a few steps. Then he was hauling her up with his good arm and marching back toward the bedroom. One hunger had been sated. It was time to cater to the other burning desire they felt.
They were very late to meet with his family—and Dakota didn’t mind one little bit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Dakota and Ace were having a standoff, and there was no way she was backing down. He paced the floor in front of her, stopping every once in a while to send a withering gaze in her direction. Dakota leaned back against the counter and shot him a look that was most certainly calling him several names.
r /> “This isn’t acceptable,” Ace finally said, a dramatic sigh slipping from his compressed lips.
“I agree. You’re being a controlling lout, and I won’t have it. And if you think you’re going to bed me into submission again, you have another think coming. I paid for flight lessons, and I’m going to have them. You either come with me or I am going there on my own. I’m sure Sherman will find me a new trainer.”
Dakota didn’t want a new trainer. She wanted to be in that tiny plane with Ace, and only Ace, but she wasn’t going to sit by if he chose not to go with her. She’d let him keep her cooped up at his brother’s place for two days. She was now done.
“But what if it isn’t safe?” Ace said.
“We’ve been over this and over this,” she huffed. “Robberies happen. It’s certainly not something I ever want to happen to me again, but I do live in one of the largest cities in the United States, and sometimes things happen. My brothers would prefer I live out on the family estate away from the drudges and city dwellers, as they say, but there I could be taking a walk and get attacked by a mountain lion. There’s really no safe place, is there?” she pointed out.
“How often does a mountain lion attack happen?” he asked with a roll of his eyes.
“I’m not the Internet. How in the heck should I know?” she asked.
“Threats exist everywhere. It’s important to be aware of that. I just want you safe,” he told her.
There was such a pleading look in his eyes that it immediately mollified Dakota’s anger. She pushed off the counter and slowly walked up to him. He was tense as she wrapped her arms around him.
“I know there’s danger, Ace. I know it’s impossible for you to look away from it, but you have to realize that by overprotecting me, you’re actually restricting me. If you care about me at all, you won’t do that,” she reasoned with him.
She stood on her bare toes and kissed his solid jaw. It took a few moments, but finally he began to relax. His arms wrapped behind her and pulled her tightly to him, as if he would never let her go. On one hand, she wanted him to shield her from so much, but on the other, she couldn’t give in on this matter or she feared it would define the rest of their time together. She would grow to hate him if she didn’t stand up for herself.
“Logically, I know you’re right,” Ace finally admitted. “It’s just that my gut says something isn’t right.”
