Page 66 of Always Been Yours

I sit back up and she follows this time. “Grady?”

I turn my head to her, and I know my fear is apparent. “Did you see that?”

“What?” Her voice is a whisper, and she peeks toward the hallway.

“I saw something move.” I wait for her to react. She doesn’t. She just looks mildly confused. “Twice,” I add.

Shegigglesin the face of my fear. “Oh.”

Vivi stands from the floor and walks up the hallway.

“Wait, don’t go back there. I should be the one who confronts the ax murderer.”

Thatmakes her breathy cackle come alive. When she walks back, she’s still slightly wheezing and holding… two cats?

She has cats?

“You have cats?” I ask.

“Yeah.” She’s beaming at the two balls of fur who are hanging from her arms. “This one is Cinnamon.” She lifts the smaller, less fluffy cat. She’s orange with green eyes. “And this is Vanilla.” The white cat is almost double the size as the other one with yellow eyes and a lot more fur.

“How long have you had them?”

“I got Vanilla when I moved back about six years ago. Your dad knew I wanted to get her a friend, so when the strays were brought in four years ago, he let me choose who I wanted first.”

Vivi sets them both down on the floor and they assess me before walking over.

“And just so you know, they aren’t killers. So far, they have never been violent toward anything except Calypso.”

I pet their heads and Vanilla rolls into a ball on my lap. “We’ve all been there,” I start to chuckle before I can even get the comment out. Vivi shoves my shoulder butlaughs.

Vivi

Cinnamon and Vanilla took to Grady faster than even Asher—their favorite man until now.

He had togentlylug the hefty white fluff off his lap. I could tell he considered staying there all night to not disturb her. My entire body was bursting with warmth at the sight of Grady making himself a part of my little home.

That was until he started to get restless and wandered to the bookshelf that spans the length of one of the walls. Hudson installed it when I ran out of room. It’s almost to the brim with books but my little home is at its capacity. Almost all of them are romance novels—because let’s be honest, the best literature is always romantic.

And I’ve never, and willnever,be ashamed of reading what I do. But that doesn’t stop my entire body from lighting up like a fire alarm when he goes straight to some of the smuttier books.

I stand ramrod straight with my back to the bookcase while he flips through a particularly spicy book about an NHL player and his teammate’s little sister. He doesn’t seem to be skimming any of the pages so that’s a plus.

“Have you ever even dated a hockey player?” He grunts like a caveman. His jealousy sends fireworks through me.

“Nooo, I haven’t,” I say slowly. “But I’ve never dated a billionaire or a single father either. Doesn’t stop me from reading about them.” I give him a cheeky grin.

He rolls his eyes and turns back to the book.

Slowly his head tips up to meet my eyes, and the fire I see burning sends a heatwave straight to my core.

“Youread this?”

“Yes,” I answer slowly.

He takes a step toward me. “This book talks about…” His eyes skim the page again before looking back up at me and reciting, “…my hard cock pumps into her over… and over…”

I really have to give it to him; he got through that entire sentence without stuttering.

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