“Brooklyn.”
“Did you havefamily there?”
He hesitates, and I wonder if I’m asking too many questions.
“Da. I stayed with them until I went into the service.”
“What made you want to go into the service?”
He chuckles again. “Shouldn’t you be getting some rest?”
Does he want me to hurry and go back to sleep? I’m enjoying sitting here with him, but maybe he doesn’t feel the same. The thought makes my heart sink in my chest and I roll my lips between my teeth.
Like he can read my mind, he says, “I want to answer all your questions, Lepa, but some things are easier to talk about than others.” He squeezes my arms again. “I will make a deal with you, five questions per day. Anything you want to ask, da?”
My smile comes back and I lightly squeeze his forearm again. “Da.”
He chuckles at my use of his word. His lips brush the top of my head. “You’ve exceeded your quota for the day, go to sleep. I will stay here with you.”
Just as my eyes are getting heavy, I remember something, and it startles me a little. “I need to go into town tomorrow and get a special formula for the gelding.”
“Then I will take you.”
“Okay.”
We lie here in silence for a little while before I can’t hold my eyes open any longer and I drift off into a warm, deep sleep with no dreams.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
JAX
THE BIRDSoutside of Marley’s window are so noisy that I’m surprised she is still sleeping. Once she fell back to sleep, aside from her hands sliding off my arms to her stomach, she hasn’t moved an inch. I’ve been listening to her kitten snore for the past hour, and it’s fucking cute as hell.
When she asked me to sit with her last night, not even Mason’s ‘I’ll fucking kill you look’ could make me leave. She askedmeto stay. She doesn’t know it, but she’s sealed her fate.
She’s mine.
In all honesty, she’s been mine since the first time I laid eyes on her, but from a distance. I’ve been watching over her from afar, biding my time, getting close to her one visit at a time. But now that I’ve held her to me as she sleeps, when she is at her most vulnerable, that distance between us is erased.
What she gave me last night, innocently, was her complete trust and I will never take that lightly. She is mine toprotect, love, and worship. Some would call that obsession. I don’t fucking care. She’s my obsession.
The smell of bacon is tickling my nose, making my stomach growl. Marley twitches at the sound. The fucking noisy as hell birds won’t wake her up, but my growling stomach will. I smile as I watch her slowly wake up.
Her eyes slowly open and focuses on the window where the damn birds are, but she doesn’t move. I half expect her to freak out and jump away from me, but she surprises me.
“That was the best sleep I’ve had in a long time.” Her voice is groggy, and I think I love her even more.
She still doesn’t move, and I smile to myself. “Do you know you snore?”
That makes her move. She sits up and spins her torso around to look at me. Her blond hair is disheveled from tossing during her dream last night and her blue eyes are still groggy, her face puffy from sleep, but she is still the most stunning woman I have ever seen.
“I do not!” She has to clear her throat to get the sleep out. Her beautiful shyness is creeping up her neck and flushing her cheeks.
Booping her nose with my finger, I smile at her. “It’s like a little kitten purring while being petted.”
Her eyes slide to the side like she’s thinking and then come back to me. “So not wall shaking like my dad when he’s had too much to drink?”
Wanting to tease her more, I smile bigger. “Even if you shake the walls, I will still think it’s cute.”
