Page 36 of Trig
I nodded. “My mother is always drunk and with a different sleazy guy whenever I see her, which isn’t too often anymore and–”
He frowned. “What the hell do you mean,sleazy guy?”
“–my father never wanted me. When I thought he did, it turns out he wagered me in a hand of poker. Hesoldme to Conrad Trout and if he doesn’t deliver...”
I fiddled with a button on Trig’s shirt so I didn’t have to look him in the eye.
“Father doesn’t really want me. Conrad Trout doesn’t wantme.He wants a woman thirty years younger who’ll submit to all kinds of dark and perverted stuff in the bedroom.”
“He told you that?”
“Yeah.”
He tipped my chin up with his fingers. “You, Ellis Mann or Ellie Rainwater, or whatever your name is, you’re wanted. By me. By my entire family. I’m not going to get sick of you. Ever.”
“But–”
“No buts, unless it involves my handprint on yours. And don’t think I won’t bring back up thesleazy guysyour mother dates. I want to know all about them. Later.”
I bit my lip. For the first time, I felt wanted.
This was it. What I really wanted. Where Iwaswanted. In Trig’s arms. In his house. His bed. His family.
“You… really want to marry me?”
He tipped my chin up. “What have I been saying since you first woke up in my bed?”
“That I belong to you.”
He nodded. “Yeah, sugar. One look and I knew you were everything I’ve been waiting for.”
Maybe Ann had been right. One look and she and Charlie knew they belonged together. All these years and nine kids later, they were still in love.
Love.
“I… I hoped to marry for love,” I admitted.
Trig sighed, then flipped me over his lap.
“Trig! What are you–”
He had Lainey’s borrowed leggings down below the curve of my butt and a swat landed on my right butt cheek.
“You listening, sugar?” he asked, leaning down close to my ear. His hand rested on my stinging skin.
I nodded. Squirming was no good.
“I think I need to make things a little clearer. You think this is all about you, about you giving up everything. That you’re my possession. That you’re mine.”
“That’s what you said!”
He spanked me again. “Yeah, but it also means I’m yours. I belong to you. I might walk away from the rodeo circuit, but I’m not giving up everything, I’mgettingeverything I’ve always wanted.”
“Trig.” Tears filled my eyes.
“I love you, Ellie. From the first. I was yours then and there. It just seems to be a hell of a hard time making you see that.”
“I love you, too,” I admitted.
