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Nell breathed a relieved sigh. “I promise you haven’t been on speaker. Not except for the first thirty seconds or so.”
“The first thirty seconds, you say?” There was a new note of mischief in her voice. “Put me back on speaker.”
One corner of Nell’s lips twitched. She had no idea what her sister was up to, but she had a feeling it would be entertaining as hell. Pulling the phone away from her ear, she tapped the speaker button again.
“Rafe?” Holly said, imperious as a queen.
“I’m pleased to meet you, Holly,” he said in that gruff, sexy voice of his.
“Mmm.” She didn’t bother to hide her skepticism. “My sister tells me you heard the first thirty seconds of our call.”
Rafe didn’t seem at all phased by her tone. “Nell needed a little help getting started, that’s all.”
“Well, if you heard what I said, then you know what I’m willing to do to men who hurt my sister.” After a dramatic pause, she finished with, “I highly suggest you don’t if you want your balls to remain attached to your body.”
Wincing, Nell twisted around in his lap so she could look up at him, worried the threat would make him mad. It certainly would’ve sent Brian or Micah flying off the handle. But the only word she could think of to describe his smile wasferal.
“I’m going to hold you to that, Holly Campbell. Whether it’s me or any other man. Though from what I can tell, Nell’s perfectly capable of cutting off my balls herself.”
Her sister’s surprised laughter made all the tension melt out of Nell’s shoulders, and she leaned her head back against Rafe’s chest. For the first time in so many years, she finally felt like everything might truly turn out okay. So long as she kept trying.
CHAPTER10
Rafe
It was easy to see why Nell worshipped her sister so much. The woman was a force to be reckoned with, and Rafe believed she was at least half serious about the whole castration thing. God help Micah O’Neill if the man ever saw Holly again. Not that the asshole deserved protection, celestial or otherwise.
Nell asked to stay in his lap after ending her phone call with her sister. Given how incredibly fucking brave she’d been, it seemed only right to grant the simple request. Holly straight-up ordered Nell to email her high school best friends, passing on their up-to-date contact info along with her own, but he’d been watching her struggle to compose emails to Cady and Ben for the last forty minutes.
“I think those are perfect,” he said, after watching her change a word for the fourth time. In fact, he was almost sure she put it back to what it was originally. “You have a beautiful way with words.”
The loveliest blush colored her cheeks. “You don’t think it’s too beautiful, do you? My agent used to send me scripts for the shittiest TV show pilots. Stuff with dialogue so unnatural I knew the show would never get greenlit. This has to soundreal. I want Ben and Cady to think this legit came from the heart, not that I’m trying to—”
“Nell.”
Her babble ended at the merest hint of his Dom voice. “Yes, Sir?”
“Hit send.”
She relaxed against him, her head resting on his shoulder, and did as she was told. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure. Are you done with your tasks for today?”
“There’s one more thing I want to do,” she answered, surprising him. Sending those emails put her up to three points, and he expected her to be talking about her next fantasy by now.
But that surprise was nothing compared to what hit him when she typedHow to become a therapistinto the search bar. He watched with brows arched as high as they would go while she navigated through the results, adding info to her New Dream Job document now and again. This was a muchdeeper dive into a specific career path than she did yesterday, and therapist hadn’t even been on her list.
When at last she saved and closed the document, Nell twisted around in his lap to look up at him. “I’m finished, Sir.”
He knew he shouldn’t pry. Her task was to do the research and figure out a new path for her life, not explain herself to him. But he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “A therapist, huh?”
She blushed again, but excitement sparked in her eyes. “Something Holly said made me think of it.” She spoke a little faster than normal, with a passion he found hypnotizing. “About how she and Ben both spent a long time in therapy after the intervention, working through their anger and grief and fear and all that. And it got me thinking about how much I could’ve used a therapist this last year. How maybe the Mistress might not have needed to rope you into doing her such a huge favor—”
“I hope you don’t think that’s why I’m doing this,” he interrupted. It may have been the only reason he agreed to take her as a guest, but it sure as fuck wasn’t the reason for anything that happened since. “I’m doing this foryou, not Freya.”
Her small smile told him she thought that very thing and was beyond pleased to hear otherwise. “Anyway,” she said, her voice a little softer but her excitement in no way diminished. “If I’d found a therapist who really understood the way my brain works, what my body needs, how I feel about everything—someone who won’t judge me because they seriously get me... maybe I could’ve started healing a long time ago. Hell, if I went to one sooner, maybe I never would’ve gotten myself into the situation with Micah in the first place.”
“And you want to be that person for other people?” He didn’t bother keeping the pride and admiration out of his voice. She deserved to know she earned it.
