Page 71 of Claiming His Bunny
“That I am!” Annalise chirps, gracing us with a wide smile. “And you must be the very persistent Ethan Bennett.”
Holding Kayla to my chest with one arm, I extend the other one for Annalise to shake, the corners of my mouth twitching when Kayla growls. I know I’m a possessive bastard, but I never thought anyone would be possessive of me. I can’t say I don’t like it. “Nice to meet you, Annalise. This is my girlfriend, Kayla Reynolds.”
Kayla inhales sharply, the word 'girlfriend' distracting her just enough to shake Annalise's offered hand instead of clawing her eyes out.
Annalise beams at us again. “So, are you guys ready?” Her eyes rove over Kayla, and she cocks her brow when she notices Kayla’s bright white sneakers. “Um, I’m not sure if—”
“Just a second.” I place a kiss on top of Kayla’s head before heading to the car trunk. I return with Kayla’s hiking boots. “Kayla will just change her shoes, and we’re ready to go.”
Annalise looks genuinely relieved. “Oh, that’s great! I mean, of course you could wear those around here,” she gestures to the sneakers, “but they’d probably be ruined after today. Just join me when you’re ready!”
I pointedly don’t look at her tight ass as she sashays to one of the larger buildings. Kayla casts me an accusing look. “You told me to dress ‘sportsy,’” she says, air-quoting the word. “I wouldn’t have worn my cutest sneakers if you’d told me we were going to a farm.” She grabs the boots and sits sideways in the passenger seat to change. “So, what exactly are we doing here?”
Her voice has a tinge of unease to it. I shouldn’t find that exciting, but I guess I’m a mean motherfucker because I do. “What do you think we’re doing here?” I inquire, curious about her thoughts. The way she acts suggests she thinks we’re here to do something illegal.
“Well…” Kayla bends down to tie her laces and avoid my look. “I don’t know. Are we…feeding Ann—Feeding someone to the pigs?”
I don’t even try to smother my laugh this time. “To the pigs? What are we, the mafia?”
“Well, I don’t know!” Scowling, Kayla shoves at my chest. “Stop laughing at me, idiot, or I will really feed you to the pigs. They do eat people, right? It’s not just a myth?”
“I think so,” I reply, doing my best to smooth out my expression. “So, you’d like to kill sweet Annalise and feed her to her own pigs just for looking at me? Tsk, tsk. My sweet little bunny has a mean, jealous streak, it seems.”
“Oh, shut up.” Kayla slams the car door shut and rests her hands on her hips. “Why can’t you just tell me what we’re doing here?”
I give her a lopsided grin. “Because I enjoy you all flustered. Come on,” I hold out my hand, butterflies fluttering in my stomach when she takes it without hesitation. “We can’t keep Annalise waiting.”
Kayla elbows my side. “You’re an evil person, Ethan Bennett.”
“Duh. You’re just noticing that now?”
Grinning like lovesick idiots, we walk across the farmyard toward the large door Annalise disappeared through. At the soft neighing sound from inside, Kayla freezes, her eyes widening as she looks at me. “Is that…?”
“A barn?” I tease. “Yes, it is.”
I tug on her hand, but she doesn’t move, her eyes filling with tears. “A horse?” Her voice is but a whisper, and a single tear rolls down her cheek when a horse snorts loudly inside the barn. “There are horses here? I love horses!”
“I know.” I remember how passionately she spoke about them with little Aaron Adams. At first, I thought she was just saying random things to get through to the non-verbal kid, but I quickly realized that it was much more than that. “We’re going to spend the day here today taking care of the horses and then take them out for a ride.”
“Oh, my god.” Sniffling, Kayla throws her arms around me, her tears dampening my shirt. I sincerely hope those are happy tears and that I didn’t fuck this up.
She squeezes me tighter. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Ethan! How did you even know?”
“I’m a stalker, bunny. I know everything,” I joke, ruffling her curls.
She looks up at me, her eyes still watery. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” she says seriously. “I love you, Ethan Bennett. I don’t care that I’ve only known you for two days and that you kidnapped me and that you have all this serial killer baggage and…” More tears spill as she shakes her head. “I just love you.”
I gape at her, unable to form a thought, let alone a sentence. She loves me? How can she love me?
I never expected her to love me. I hoped that maybe, if I was lucky, I’d get her to tolerate me. To like me. But love? This woman just keeps exceeding my wildest expectations. I don’t deserve her, but I’ll die before letting her go.
“I’ve loved you from the moment you bumped into me in that hallway, Kayla,” I admit, holding her close to my racing heart. “And every day I watched you, I loved you even more.”
Cupping her face, I gently wipe the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. “Don’t cry, bunny,” I tell her. My own eyes are getting a little misty. “This is not a good thing. That just means you’ll never be rid of me.”
Kayla smiles. “I don’t want to be rid of you, dummy. I want to be with you forever and ever. That’s what love means. Now,” she sniffs and wipes her eyes, “let’s go see the horse!”
She slips from my arms and rushes into the barn. I follow her in a daze, the stupid smile stuck to my face.
