Page 12 of Bound

I reach for the driver’s side door, tug the handle, hearing the locks disengage. Then pull it again, opening the metal panel before bending and settling the bag in the passenger’s seat. “In the car, Claire,” I order softly as I straighten and step back.

“Jackson,” she presses, not moving.

I exhale, knowing that I can’t have her looking at me like that, can’t have her thinking what’s she’s thinking. “It’s not that I don’t like you.” I suck in a breath, release it. “I just…don’t like what you did.”

Guilt on her face again, and I feel like an asshole all over again.

I don’t like what she found.

Don’t like what it says about me.

Don’t like that it can ruin me.

ButIdid it, not her.

And I’m a jerk for?—

“But you’re a good person,” I blurt, sending her gaze that had slipped away jerking back to mine.

So much better than me.

“And the guys and I are lucky to have you.”

Her mouth falls open.

I nudge her into the car before she can say anything else, before I can process the expression on her face softening, before I can let it affect me.

Keep her pissed.

Keep her distant.

Keep her safe.

And…keep the demons locked up.

CHAPTER FIVE

Claire

“When are you going to stop working so hard and start giving me some grandbabies?”

I roll my eyes as I set the mug of tea in front of my adopted grandmother. “Technically,” I say, pressing a kiss to her cheek, “they’d be great grandbabies, Gran.”

She wrinkles her nose. “That makes me sound old.”

I sink into the armchair across from her. “That’s because you are old.”

Scowling, she leans forward and picks up the mug, blowing on the steaming liquid. “Don’t remind me.” Then she grins, and all teasing about grandbabies is put away. “How is work going, baby girl?”

I sigh in relief.

Gran can be a dog to a bone sometimes—and especially about my future.

She wants me settled down, taken care of.

Because she’s getting—the aforementioned—older.

I want that too—a home, a family, kids, maybe an adorable pup or a mischievous kitten. But, most of all, I want a partner who’ll love me for who I am inside.

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