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I shake my head. “It’s my fault and I’ll fix it, if you’ll let me, but I can’t work out how to do it without making it seem like I’m taking over. I don’t want to take over.”
I pull her into my lap on the nearest chair. It groans under our weight, but it’s worth it to have her here. “If you tell me to, I’ll leave you alone and never contact you again. I’ll put out a statement that I never booked you, and I’ll pay to make sure Sofia says so, too. She will. We can claim the person on the site wasn’t you. We can make up a fake identity or something. Fuck, I can help you take your kids and go to Australia, but I don’t want that.”
“You don’t?”
“I want to have you with me all the time. But I realize what a dick that makes me. That I’ve come in, destroyed your life, and now I’m staking a claim.”
She cups my cheeks and lifts my head until my gaze returns to hers. “What claim? What are you suggesting, then?”
“That I pay for the best fucking lawyer, and we smash that motherfucker, and show everyone what an abusive coward he is. And then you move in with me and be my mate and...” I trail off and take a breath. “I’m moving too fast, aren’t I?”
She nods sadly.
“No, I get it. You know the saying: a minotaur in love is worse than ten bulls in a china shop.”
She laughs. “Funnily enough, I never heard that one.”
“Well, I might have just made it up, but it’s true.” I die a thousand tiny deaths while I see she’s weighing up what I did. The word I used.
Then she smiles and the tightness in my chest eases, just a little. “In love, huh?”
I nod. She leans in and kisses me so softly, so tenderly, I get distracted. She stops.
“Well I’m glad to hear that. ’Cause I’ve been having some pretty big feelings myself. But I’m not ready to put a name to it. Not yet. I hope you can understand.”
“Of course.” It’s more than I was expecting, to be honest. “So what now? How do I make this better?”
She shakes her head. “You don’t. We make it better together.”
I nod slowly. “Yeah. You’re right. So how do we do that?”
“I need somewhere else to live.”
“Easy.” I grin. “Please, let me take care of that for you.”
She frowns.
I cut her off before she can protest. “Please!”
She huffs a laugh. “OK, but nothing fancy. Just basic.”
I nod. “Right. Basic everyday luxury. Got it.”
“Jarra!”
“Come on, let me spoil you a little. What about the legal case? You need a private investigator? A better lawyer?”
She sighs. “Probably all of the above.”
“Done.”
“And um... I was thinking...” My heart speeds up as I worry over finding the right words. I practiced this in my head, but now I’m here, nothing I thought of sounds right. “It might look good if we got married.”
Her eyes widen. “Married?”
“I mean, it would look good for me, but would it help with the custody case?”
Thank god, I found a good woman. Instead of being mad about my clumsy proposal, she laughs and tugs my horn. “Jarradek Tarvost you better be about to get down on one knee and ask me again if that was genuine. And don’t make this about anything other than what you want.”
