Page 66 of Renard's Deliverance

He raised an eyebrow. “Is that you kicking me out?”

“Do you want to stay?”

“If you want me here, I’m staying. I know you understood what I was saying before, baby. But you don’t have to be happy with it. You can be mad. You can still tell me to get lost if that’s what you want.”

But he really fucking hoped it wasn’t.

Tell him to get lost?

Was he nuts?

“But I don’t want to,” he added. “That might make me an idiot, however I’m not sure I’ve ever been the marrying type. I’m not the sort of girl you take home to meet your parents.”

Every guy she’d been with had known that.

Although it had taken her a while to clue in.

“Who the fuck said you’re not the type of woman to take home to parents?”

“Um, Renard, you just told me that you didn’t have marriage in mind.”

“And that has nothing to do with you! It’s everything to do with me. I’m a volatile asshole. I’m not easy to be around. I’ve got my moods, most things annoy me, and I . . . I have a past that’s not pretty.”

“That’s something we have in common, then,” she told him. “My past is as battered and dirty as a sedan in a demolition derby.”

His lips twitched. “I don’t mind dirty and battered. You need to know it’s not you. I’ve just had my plan in place for a while. I’m going to get myself a cabin in the woods. No one around. Just me. I want the peace . . . solitude. A place that’s just mine and I don’t have to deal with people.”

“Sounds . . . quiet.”

And kinda boring as hell.

“Just nature and the animals.”

Yeah. That sounded good for a weekend away. But a life of that?

She’d go batty.

Their plans definitely didn’t align, since she needed people around.

“That’s not going to happen for a while, though. And no one else knows my plan and I want to keep it that way. I wanted to tell you my plans because I don’t want you to think I’m playing with you. You could find a sure thing, Gem. A forever. And they would be proud to take you home to their parents. Hell, I would be. If they were still alive.”

She sucked in a breath. She wanted to tell herself that they were just words, but while she hadn’t known this man long, she did know that he always meant what he said.

“You mean that?”

“Course I do. Why would I say it if I didn’t mean it?” He gave her an incredulous look. As though he couldn’t understand why anyone would ever say something that they didn’t mean.

“I don’t want you to leave.”

He crouched down in front of her, placing his hands on her knees. “Haven’t been able to get you out of my brain, Opal. Keep thinking about you, worrying over you. Hell, I’ve been driving past your house every night just to make sure you’re safe.”

Her eyes widened as she gaped at him. “You’re joking?”

“Nope. I would try to go to sleep, to relax, but I couldn’t do it and so every night I’d drive by. Tonight, I even knocked on your door. Then I went by Dirty Delights. I need your phone number, by the way. That asshole, Devon wouldn’t give it to me.”

“You went looking for me?” she asked. “Is that why you ended up at the club?”

“Ahh, not exactly. But I’m glad I did.” He scowled. “Choosing that idiot to scene with was a big mistake. The guy had no clue what he was doing.”

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