Page 35 of His Fate

"And in the woods, apparently." Kai's dark brows shoot up and I laugh. "Dad's caught them once or twice answering the call of the wild." I giggle and snort. "Jack's a real animal."

A strange look passes over his features briefly before he starts to laugh, deep and loud, his chest vibrating against my still perky nipples.

"Your poor father."

I shrug. "It was years ago. He's had lots of therapy since then." I lean forward and kiss him because I have to, then arch a brow. "So what's this about a surprise?"

"It will no longer be one if I tell you."

I start shaking my head. "Nope. Not getting out of it that easily, bucko. I'm the daughter of a cop, I'll get it out of you one way or another."

Kai sighs, defeated, but a faint smile still pulls at his lips as he lifts a hand and fingers a few curls that have slipped free of the bun in my hair.

"You, my beloved Josephine, do not seem to understand the meaning of surprise." Then he leans forward and kisses me. "However, I fear I won't be able to keep it from you entirely anyway."

"See? I'm so good I didn't even have to use any of my interrogation methods."

"I could deny you nothing, Posey. All you need do is but ask and I would have the world at your feet, worshipping you as I do."

My heart pounds at his words and I swoon so hard, so damn hard that I can hear that silly organ practically yell the words I will not say until I've known Kai more than a week.

Yep, eight days and I'll happily tell this man I love him. Any sooner would be crazy.

Ha.

"Sooo… I believe you were about to ruin your surprise for me?"

Kai gnaws his lip, searches my eyes and tightens his grip on my butt. "I may have arranged for us to go away together."

My heart swells.

My chest squeezes.

My nipples pucker and my pussy clenches.

He planned for us to go away together? Made arrangements for us to have completely uninterrupted time together? Just me and him?

Then my stomach drops.

"Kai..." Tears form along my lash line, tears of joy filled with hope, mixed with tears of heartache filled with fear. "That's sweet, so sweet. No one has ever done anything like that for me before but I can't..."

"Before you decline my offer, please just hear my words."

Which I have to do because Kai uses so few that if I didn't listen it would be a tragedy all on its own.

"I have made the proper arrangements thanks to the help of several people who love you dearly."

He looks nervous but resolved, like he's been preparing a speech, an argument to present in order to prove it'll work and I kind of love that.

Kai takes a deep breath but his eyes never stray from mine. "Shortly after we purchased our home, I was reviewing the deed to the property and discovered that along with the house and vast land, it included a cabin, several actually, but one in particular piqued my interest. Over the past month I have had the Walker construction company working to repair and restore the cabin. They recently completed their work and I was hoping you would join me there for a few days."

I open my mouth but quickly shut it when Kai purses his lips at me. Apparently he's not done.

"I have not seen the finished product yet and would love nothing more than to share that experience with you. I approached Kady to find out how difficult it would be for her to survive without you and she explained that Grace will be returning to work tomorrow morning and the two of them feel it will be much deserved time off for you after all you did for them." He chews his lip again. "I also spoke with your father about whether or not it would even be feasible to find someone capable of assisting him sufficiently enough for you to leave. He immediately suggested Janet Spruce and went as far as to speak with her about it." Kai smirks, "Apparently she jumped at the opportunity to care for him, even offered to stay in your home for as long as you would be away."

Well, that's interesting.

And so incredibly sweet.

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