Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
She didn’t like him being mad with her.
Matthieu grunted. “I’m not grouchy. I’m upset.”
“With me?” She didn’t like that either. “You’re upset because I left the house?”
“It is my job to protect you, Maya. I take it very seriously. I like you. I do not want anything to happen to you.”
“You like me?” she asked.
“Of course I do,” he replied. “Why wouldn’t I like you?”
He’s just saying it as a friend. Don’t get all excited.
Besides, he barely knows you. Plenty of time for him to find out a bunch of things that he dislikes about you.
Wow.
That was a really cheery thought.
“I’m here to take care of you. That is my job. And I cannot do that if you break the rules. That just makes my job harder and it puts you at risk. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, I understand. I won’t do it again.”
“Why do I not believe that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you’re just an untrusting person.” She was still upset with herself. Why had she run off like that? It had been stupid. She’d just gotten an idea in her head and she’d run with it.
And now look at her. She was being scolded like a child by her crush.
No, no, I do not have a crush on this man!
Urgh. She was in real trouble here. She could not let on how she felt about him.
“No, I don’t think it’s that I’m untrusting. I think that you didn’t think first. You just got an idea in your head and went with it without thinking of the consequences. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Drat.
How had he figured her out already?
It was . . . infuriating and baffling and honestly kind of nice. Because even her own family didn’t know her this well.
“I . . . I . . .you’re wrong.”
“Maya.”
Oh man. Why was his voice so stern? And so disapproving? And why did she care?
Maya was used to disapproval from people. She’d had it from her father every report card. The look in his face, the change of tone in his voice . . . yeah, she was used to it. He’d never approved of anything she’d done. Including her current occupation.
Apparently being a yoga instructor was more of a hobby than a job.
All right. Stop thinking about your father. Matthieu is nothing like him . . . thank God.
Because that would be super weird if she was attracted to someone like her father. She shuddered.
“Maya, are you listening to me?”
“Yes, of course,” she replied, even though she realized he’d continued talking and she hadn’t noticed.
“What did I say?”
“Um, you said that we should go to bed and forget this ever happened?” she guessed.
“No,” he growled. “I reminded you that you are not allowed to lie to me. Or there will be consequences.”
Yikes.
“Well, I was close.” She snuck a glance at him.
“You weren’t close at all,” he informed her. “Why did you lie to me just now?”
“Um.” She didn’t have a good answer to that.
“Right, well, it doesn’t matter since you won’t be lying to me again.”
“You keep talking about these consequences . . . what are they?”
He grasped hold of her chin, tilting her face back. She kept her gaze on his nose. A nose couldn’t be considered attractive, right? Noses were kind of weird and ugly.
“Well, that’s what we have to work out. I know what they’d be if you were mine.”
Don’t ask.
Do. Not. Ask.
Ask. Ask. Ask.
Honestly, sometimes having two Mayas living inside her was tiring and confusing.
“What . . . what would they be?” she whispered. “If I was yours?”
Yes!
Darn it! Why did bad Maya win so much?
“Oh, you’d already be over my knee getting your bare butt spanked,” he said casually.
As though people talked about spankings all the time. As though it was something he’d done often.
Jealousy stabbed her and she did her best to smother it. Being jealous was stupid. He had to be in his late thirties or even early forties. Of course he’d been in relationships before.
Relationships with women whom he had spanked.
She didn’t know how she felt about that. Maybe this was a turn-off. It should be a turn-off, right?
You know it’s not, naughty girl.
And the thing was . . . she wasn’t even sure who whispered that in her head.
Bad or good Maya.
Urgh, she was getting more and more confused.
“But I can’t do that to you.”
He couldn’t?
Of course he can’t. You’re not his girlfriend, you’re his charge.
A thorn in his side.
And that was relief she felt that he wouldn’t spank her.
Not disappointment.
There was a part of her that wondered what it would like to be spanked by him. To be taken over his knee.
To have someone care enough about her to give her rules and consequences and follow through with them. Her father would just bluster and yell, then not talk to her. Her stepmother would whisper threats, her stepbrothers would sneer at her and push her around when they were alone.