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Only that wouldn’t work with Wynn. She was stronger, fiercer. When something or someone mattered to her, she refused to stop fighting for them. She’d eat Vanessa alive, no matter whose turf she was on. Which was why I loved her so goddamn much.
Months ago, that realization might have scared the shit out of me. It might have sent me running for the hills. I’d been so sure I never wanted to feel this way for another woman again. What I felt for Wynn, though, was so much more than anything I might have had or wanted with Vanessa. What IthoughtI felt back then paled in comparison to the intense, blood-stirring, world-rocking love I felt for the woman I was currently holding on to.
Using my hold on her shoulders, I turned her around to face me, letting loose the smile I’d been trying to fight during her little tirade. “Badass over basic?” I asked, my eyebrows lifting high on my forehead as my chest shook on a chuckle.
She smiled unrepentantly, lifting her shoulders in a careless shrug. “I figured I’d get through to her easier if I spoke her language. She strikes me as the kind of woman who calls others basic bitches and speaks in acronyms.”
My head fell back on a laugh from deep in my gut as I pulled her against me and wrapped my arms around her, holding her to me. Right where she belonged.
She returned the embrace, wrapping her arms around my waist and burrowing her face into my chest, creating a warmth inside of me that grew and spread like vines.
“That’s it,” I heard my grandmother say. “I’m putting that girl in my will.”
ChapterTwenty-One
WYNN
The wordson the computer screen in front of me began to blur as my eyelids drooped, feeling like they had weights attached to them, pulling them down. I dozed for a second, my chin falling out of the hand I had it propped in and jerking me awake.
“Shit,” I hissed as I shook my head, trying to shake away the exhaustion clinging to me. Despite Gage’s freaking perfect bed, I hadn’t been sleeping for shit. It wasn’t that I didn’t like sharing a bed with him. I liked it too damn much. Every time he climbed beneath the sheets beside me, my whole body lit up, electricity arching through me like a live wire.
It had been three nights. Three restless, exhausting nights. Three nights of sexual tension building until it became damn near unbearable. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been this horny in my life. My insides felt like a can of soda that had been shaken, roiling and churning with no way to release the pressure.
I was starting to worry that if there wasn’t some kind of relief, the back of my head was literally going to blow off.
I picked up the energy drink I’d been sipping all morning—coffee wasn’t cutting it—and took a deep pull, wincing at the acrid taste of it when my office phone rang.
“This is Wynn Klein.”
“Well, apparently not Klein for long, huh?”
I shot up straight in my chair, all thoughts of exhaustion disappearing at the deep, craggy voice on the other end of the line. “Daddy, hi!” I squeaked, adrenaline dumping into my bloodstream. “How was your cruise?”
A huff of disapproval rang in my ear, causing me to curl my lips between my teeth and bite down hard. I’d heard of Mom Guilt from most of my friends, I’d even seen it up close and in person with Marcia and Gage over the past week and a half. But in the Klein family, Dad Guilt coursed through us. Maybe because, for as long as I could remember, I’d been the very definition of a daddy’s girl. I adored my mother, and truth be told, I got most of my sass from her, but there was something extra special about the bond he and I had. Most of the time I had the strict, stoic man wrapped around my little finger. But on the rare occasion when I disappointed him, well... that was a hard-ass pill to swallow.
I’d called every day since Farah told me the email went out, hoping to catch them so I could give them the news of my surprise engagement myself, but it seemed I missed the mark.
“How was the cruise? That’s what you have to say to me? How about an explanation as to why your mom and I have an email invite to our only daughter’s engagement party, when we didn’t have the first damn clue she was even seeing anyone?”
He was using the very same tone that he’d used back in high school when my best friend, Lizzy, and I were picked up for joyriding in her mom’s car without permission. When I showed up on the doorstep with a police escort, I thought my old man was going to have a coronary.
Hearing that same level of disappointment in his voice was a shot to the gut.
“Look, Dad, I can explain.”
His derisive snort echoed through the line. “I certainly hope so, young lady.”
Oh shit. He’d “young lady’d” me. That wasnotgood.
“It’s Gage, Dad,” I explained quickly. My folks had been to Redemption for a handful of visits over the years I’d lived there, and in that time they’d gotten to know the man I was fake-engaged to. Not well, but enough that my mom liked him and my dad respected him. I was hoping that news would be enough to sway my father into a better mood, but it was a crapshoot when it came to my love life. He’d never liked a single boy I brought home to meet them.EspeciallyDarrin. It could have been that my taste in men was that shitty, but I suspected no one would be good enough for Greg Klein’s baby girl.
“I know this is a pretty big deal, and I had every intention of telling you and Mom personally. Farah got overly excited. I didn’t know she was sending that email. I swear. It just... kind of happened. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I trudged through my sluggish brain to find a lie that might pacify my dad.
“We hadn’t been seeing each other very long, but you know how it’s been. He’s my best friend. When we finally decided we wanted to be together... I guess it took us both by surprise. He proposed while you guys were on your cruise. I was going to tell you as soon as you got back.”
He let out a grunt I’d heard a hundred times. That grunt meant he wasn’t exactly happy, but as much as he didn’t want to accept my excuse, he didn’t have much choice. But he’d still find a way to bitch about it.
“What kind of man asks a woman to marry him without coming to her father for permission first?”
