Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Kate crosses her arms and taps her foot.
I grin at her obstinance. I do love a strong-headed woman. But right now, my urge to get home makes me bark at her. “I’ll put you over my shoulder and carry you to the car if you don’t move out.”
“Asshole.”
I laugh at her irritation. “I am.”
“This is not funny.”
“Really? Because I think it’s kind of amusing for some reason.”
“I want to hit you over the head. Do you have frying pans at your palace?”
I laugh and grab her hand. “I have a flat, not a palace.”
“Did I say palace?”
“In true Princess form.”
“Stop with the Princess stuff. I’m just a woman. A very pissed woman.”
“Come on. You can be pissed at my flat. But I’ll warn you in advance, it’s a fifth of the size of your cottage.”
“Will it have electricity and a door that hasn’t been kicked down?”
“I guess so. We will see when we get there.”
She plods along next to me. “Aren’t you worried?”
“Not particularly about someone messing up my place.”
“What are you worried about?”
I glance at her. “You. That’s why I’m going to say this, and only say it once. You do not leave my side. For anything. Do you understand that?”
In a snappy tone, she says, “I do.”
For some reason, hearing those words makes me grin. “I didn’t even have to trick you into saying it.”
Huffing, she scurries along in her flip flops to keep up with my longer stride. “You would, though, wouldn’t you?”
“I’m not above it.”
I open the passenger door of my car for her. “Your grandmother would approve of any and all tactics to get my desires and to protect your safety.”
She drops into the seat. Her petite chin is jutted at an obstinate angle. “She’d approve of anything that has to do with you.”
When I slide in the driver’s seat, I ask, “So, she likes me?”
Kate throws her head back on the leather seat. “That’s the understatement of the century. She’s already picturing what our children would look like. I saw it in her eyes.”
That drops like a bomb in my gut. She can picture all she wants. That’s not happening.
“Well, she won’t have to worry about that. I won’t be having any.” I fire up the engine, gunning the gas a few times. I can feel Kate’s eyes on me as I reverse the car out of the parking lot.
She asks, “No kids for you, huh?”
“I like them fine, when they belong to someone else. Plus, I’m not marriage material.”
“That’s right, you mentioned that. So, eternal bachelor?”
I mash the accelerator and merge the car into traffic on the highway. “Something like that.”
“Well, I would love to have a family. And a farm with a furry little donkey and bunnies. And maybe a goat. The little bitty kind, that like to wear sweaters. And if I have a daughter, she won’t have a father that tells her what to do or tells her who she can date.”
“A farm, huh? And I wouldn’t be so sure about any father not being an ass about his daughter dating. Most fathers, even those that aren’t Kings, are protective over their girls. I know I would be.”
“So, what would you say about your daughter sleeping with someone like you?”
I glance at her and then turn back to the road. “I’d have someone shake me down and make me think twice about seeing you again.”
That makes her laugh. “I can’t imagine what kind of shakedown they’d have to use. You don’t scare so easily, Wolf.”
“It would take a lot to scare me away from something I wanted.”
But as soon as I say the words, I know it’s a lie.
It only takes one four-letter-word to send me running like the biggest chicken in the world. L-O-V-E.
* * *
Kate
For some reason, my mind is suddenly filled with images of my dream farm. The one with the bunnies and goats, and a big field of sunflowers.
Only now there’s a new resident… A big, overprotective, blond god of a man with a quick, sexy smile and eyes the color of a stormy ocean. And when he walks down the steps from the front porch, there’s a tiny blond-haired baby in his arms.
All the things I'm weakest for.
Damnit. In all the times I thought of my future homeplace, it was just me. Dancing in the sunshine with butterflies sipping from my garden.
But now my dream is forever tainted. I’ll never be able to get that image of him out of my head. Or the longing out of my heart.