Page 82 of Always Red (Chasing Red 2)

I looked down at our joined hands, swallowed the bitterness climbing up my throat, and took comfort in Red’s touch. She calmed me down.

“But I realized that the more I resented him, the more I told myself I didn’t care, that he was not a part of my life, had no say in my life… It just meant I was letting him influence my decisions.”

I looked up into her eyes. Dark cat eyes that always visited my dreams at night.

“I was letting him control me. Giving him more power over me. And it had to stop. You know when I realized that?”

She shook her head.

“When I met you,” I confessed quietly. “You woke me up. I saw how hard you were working, how independent and dedicated and stubborn you are, and I felt…ashamed. But most of all, you inspired me. Still do. And you make me want to be a better version of myself.”

I heard her draw a sharp breath, felt her fingers tighten around mine.

“Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I hadn’t met you that night. I have very, very bad thoughts about that.”

“Caleb,” she said tenderly and leaned forward to lay her soft lips on mine. “I need to tell you something.”

“Okay.”

“I know in your line of work you need…someone who can help you.”

I straightened in my seat, alert now. Was she going to say that she wanted to work for me? Quit her job and just be with me?

“Someone to make your personal and business life easier. A wife who has connections that will open doors for you. Who goes to club luncheons and charities. Someone in your social circle—”

“Whoa, whoa, Red. Where the hell is this coming from?”

And then I realized: Beatrice-Rose.

Damn it!

Frustrated, I raked my fingers through my hair, barely containing my anger. Beatrice-Rose was really testing what little patience I had left for her.

“Listen to me,” Red ordered. “I’m not finished.”

The quick flash of temper and sharpness in her voice shifted my eyes back to her face. Her eyes were dark and blazing with anger.

Damn, I loved my girl when she was furious. I had to be sick.

“Yes, master.” I couldn’t help it. I had to say it.

She narrowed her eyes. “I know all that. And it might make your life easier if you marry someone with social standing like Beatrice-Rose.”

“Now, wait a minute—”

“I said I’m not finished.”

I felt like a student getting a lecture. Except that I really, really wanted the lecture because the teacher was hot. Blazing hot. I realized I was grinning when she narrowed her eyes into slits again. I had to work hard to keep a straight face.

“I didn’t grow up in your world, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know these things. I’m not stupid. I know it would be more beneficial for you to marry someone from a family with a prestigious name. Someone who could play the piano and eat caviar and goat cheese and snails and disgusting rich-people food—”

“Snails give me indigestion, Red.”

“—and someone who has a degree in art history or philosophy. Who wears Louboutin shoes and expensive dresses.”

She was getting angrier by the second. And I was mesmerized.

“Someone who manages your household and has her own business but still has energy when she comes home to you and knows all these wonderful tricks in bed.”

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