Page 33 of Finding Limits

“Well, he made Harvey a promise, and this town’s gonna be a better place with him in charge,” Cole reminds her, proving again how much he’s changed. He used to hate the world, now he seems determined to find the best in it.

“He’s worried about Bianca Mason, I can tell.” She lowers her voice.

“Yeah, well, he ain’t got no need for that, we took care of the last Mason problem just fine,” Cole sniggers and Maisie narrows her eyes like she’s about to scold him.

“I don’t think you can handle Bianca in quite the same way.” She reminds him of the fact the last Mason problem ended up with two deaths to cover up.

“I think I’ve proven that, if I have to, I will. Whatever it takes.” Cole nods his head before moving on.

“You don’t think he would?—”

“Maisie, darlin’, when it comes to this family I wouldn’t rule out anythin’.” I move along with him, nodding my head at Hunter and letting him see that I’m impressed.

Ipractically pace the floor waiting for Mitch to come home. I fell into such a deep sleep last night that I never woke up until he’d left for work. In fact, Josie was already here when I got my lazy ass out of bed.

I’ve spent the entire day wondering if things will be different between us now. I know I was forward last night, and I can’t imagine what Mitch must be thinking, but at the same time, I really liked how it felt to be in control.

I touched him on my own terms and it gave him pleasure, pleasure that felt like such a reward.

He can’t have been too mad, because he kissed me after, and I swear I’ve felt the touch of it on my lips ever since.

The fact he left without saying goodbye this morning has me scared that he’ll come home tonight and try to push me away the same way he did before.

“Well, I'm outta here. I have a date tonight.” Josie jumps up from the couch as soon as the clock strikes five-thirty.

“Okay.” I smile back at her guiltily, I haven’t been good company today, not that I’m much on any other day. But I can feel everything changing. I have the drive and determination to get better. To be confident and to have more experiences with Mitch like I did last night.

I wait until Josie has left before I pick up my book and head out to sit on the porch. The open space I look out onto doesn’t seem half as scary now that I've explored it with Mitch, and when I eventually see him riding toward me in the distance, I stand up and wait for him to get closer.

He looks so handsome when he’s riding. To be honest, he looks handsome doing pretty much anything, and when he jumps off his saddle and ties his horse to the railings, I’m a little taken aback when he suddenly grabs hold of my hips and steers my body to align with his.

“I’m sorry that I left this morin’ without sayin’ goodbye. My head was a mess.” He shakes his head as if his own words are confusing him.

“I hate that you’ve been through hell, I wish I could go back in time and make it all go away. I wish I was the man who’d killed whoever treated you so bad and did those terrible things to you. But I like that I’m your comfort now. I love that you trust me, and although I feel like I don’t deserve it, that don’t mean I won’t treasure it. Shit, I’m rantin’ and all my words are comin’ out wrong.” He stops to take a breath, and when a tiny smile lifts his lips my whole chest fills with warmth.

“Everleigh, I like you very much. I spend my whole day wonderin’ what you're doin’ and lookin’ forward to seein’ ya. I’m too old for ya, and you may not even be seein’ me in the same way that I see you, but this is me promisin’ never to run scared on you again.”

“You were scared?” I whisper, still shocked at what I’m hearing. I can’t imagine Mitch being scared of anything, especially me.

“Yes, I’m scared. I’m scared of how you make me feel. I’m scared that I ain’t enough, but most of all I’m scared of hurtin’ ya. You looked so peaceful while you were sleepin’ last night. And ya keep sayin’ that I’m a good man and I’m sorry to tell ya, darlin’, but that ain’t always the case. I’ve done things that I’m probably goin’ to Hell for, but you need to know that I would never do anythin’ to hurt ya.”

His hand reaches up to cradle my face and his thumb strokes my cheek.

“I know things are gonna be hard and if all you ever want me to be is the man who holds you at night, then I’ll be grateful for it.” His deep scratchy voice makes my stomach flip.

“I don’t just want that. I like the way it feels when you touch me. I liked the way you kissed me.” I feel my cheeks heat up when I think about all the other things I’ve imagined us doing. “I just wish I could be normal and?—”

“Sweetheart, we don’t do normal around here, we are who we are and everyone accepts that. You just have to learn to be okay with yourself.” His lips are so temptingly close that I crave them even more.

“Mitch,” I whisper his name.

“Yeah, darlin’?”

“I’d very much like it if you kissed me again.” I smile up at him, feeling that same spark of thrill as I did when I took him in my hand last night.

“I’d very much like that too.” He takes off his hat and leans closer, connecting his lips to mine and making that flutter in my stomach turn into something much stronger. I gasp out loud when he suddenly lifts me off my feet.

“What are you doing?” I ask, clinging to his arms as he places my ass down on the porch rail.

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