Page 6 of Dallas
Dallas
* * *
I didn’t plan this. Any of it.
I came here today, like every other day, to research the town’s archives. Sure, Arianna has consumed my thoughts ever since the first time I stepped into this library, but I’ve never let those thoughts take up permanent residence in my head.
I’m not in the market for a woman. I’ve spent the past three years keeping women at arm’s length. I could have gone the rest of my life happily single. It’s safer. It protects my heart and my wallet.
I didn’t seek this out, and it’s not a particularly welcome emotion, but Arianna is definitely mine. The sooner I accept that and she understands it, the better.
Tiago joked last week that there must be something in the water, and now I’m inclined to agree with him. I’m feeling toward Arianna the same way Tiago and Ryder feel about Reagan and Claire respectively. Possessive, greedy, jealous, and urgent.
The jig is up. I’ve been strutting in here every day because I couldn’t breathe right when I wasn’t in her presence. Watching another man—boy—flirt with her was the last straw. She needs to know she’s mine so there’s no chance she will ever again fall for the attention of another man.
I lower my gaze from her stunned, wide eyes to her full lips and continue stroking her bottom one with my thumb as I repeat myself, “You’re mine, baby.”
She’s not breathing, so I lower my hand to cup her neck and stroke the front. “Take a breath, Arianna.”
She drags in a deep lungful of air.
“Good girl.” I have a lot of questions, and it’s time for answers. “Now, tell me what you’re running from and who you were before you changed your name to Arianna Blythe when you turned eighteen seven years ago.”
My girl’s face turns pale, and her knees give out. I have to grab her hips to keep her from sliding down the wall to the floor.
I press my torso against hers to steady her before moving my hands to her biceps. She’s not looking at me anymore. In fact, her eyes are squeezed shut as though she can avoid me by not seeing me. She purses her lips. It’s cute, but it’s not going to work on me.
Even though I’ve told myself over and over that I couldn’t, shouldn’t, and wouldn’t fall for Arianna, that didn’t keep me from doing a bit of digging into her past. I figured I could be curious and concerned without actually allowing myself to care. I figured wrong, of course.
I called my PI, Jason, in Texas and had him do a bit of investigating. I was rightfully suspicious about my girl. Nothing about her seems real, starting with the bun in her hair and those horn-rimmed glasses and reaching all the way down to the pantyhose and practical, old-lady pumps she wears.
Sure enough, I now know that my girl has secrets. Lots of them. It’s not going to be easy to get her to talk, which doesn’t surprise me. But I do need to make certain she’s not in danger. “Are you hiding from someone in particular, baby?”
She swallows hard and shakes her head.
“Do I need to worry about someone coming after you?”
She shakes her head again.
I reach up and tip her chin back, forcing her to look at me, narrowing my gaze so she knows I’m dead serious. “I won’t make you talk to me this morning, but I do insist you not lie to me, Arianna. I can’t protect you if you don’t tell me the truth.”
She finally opens her mouth. “No one is looking for me.”
“Good girl. If I catch you lying to me, I will turn you over my knee and spank your naughty bottom until I’m certain you won’t do so again. Understood?”
Her pretty brown eyes widen to saucers as her jaw drops. I’m coming on fast, hard, and strong. I know it, but this is important. Her safety is my primary concern.
“The answer I want to hear is ‘Yes, Sir,’” I tell her.
She draws in oxygen through her nose.
I lift a brow, waiting while she trembles in my arms.
“Yes, Sir,” she finally whispers, her entire body shivering.
I smile. “Good girl.” I slide a hand down to the small of her back and guide her to one side so I can open the door. I don’t want to embarrass her by having someone come into the library and catch her in the archive room with the door closed.
She stands still, staring at me, dazed, a bit wobbly still.
