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Jesse’s hand clenched around her wrist He forced hientle his hold "Clive hurt you?" he rumbled

She shook her head "And I don’t knohy He used to call me his princess and be really kind to me Sometimes I think he just wanted someone to worship him But you knohat? I did love him at the time"

"Of course you did He was your dad and you loved who you thought he was"

She noddedJesse’s face "I did" And she’d believed he loved her back But he hadn’t "Even now, I don’t hate him," she admitted "But I despise and resent that people think of hi, devoted father as so devastated by the loss of his son that he wreaked vengeance on humans in the way that other shifters wished they could have done And he lets the"

"You would think that Lily would find it a blessing that he isn’t able to hurt or control her any his face "Instead, she seems unable to cope without him"

"Like I said, my family isn’t normal" She took a deep breath "You sure you’re okay with ht kiss to heryourself up for doing so your own father"

"I’ll do irl" They fell into a comfortable silence as she finished the job, washed his face and throat, dried him off, and then applied his lotion He skih areas or ood job, baby" He kissed her hard "Thank you"

"You’re welcohi and you were right there, I feltcalm" It was hard for hi restless inside You bringequally sweet, but I don’t want to sound like a girl"

"You are a girl My girl" Taking her hand, he nipped the pad of her finger "Always have been You shouldn’t have taken so long to realize where you belonged Three years ay too long"

He said it like she’d left hi that time"

"I wasn’t celibate I’m a shifter We need touch, sexual and social But they were either short flings or one-night stands None of the" Yeah, it was cold but it was also the truth

If that was supposed to soothe Harley, it didn’t Although she didn’t like thinking of him with others, she also didn’t like that he’d closed hiive any of the more to you"

"Hmm"

Hmm? "What does ‘hmm’ mean?" And why did it annoy her so much when he said it?

"None of them could have made me happy They weren’t you" It was really that simple "You didn’t have a lot of relationships either--there was only really the chef, the lawyer, and the fireaped "How the hell do you know that?"

"You should have damn well known in advance that they wouldn’t make you happy The chef was an asshole with an assault record The laason you The fireman"

"Cheated on me," she finished "I’m surprised you didn’t try to scare them off" Then she remembered how abruptly they had all disappeared "Ohyou ith others, but--knowing I’d have you one day, when you were ready to see you weren’t happy aood to you They weren’t, so they needed to go"

She looked at the ceiling "Why aren’t I mad?" He’d interfered in her personal life, after all

He slid his arms around her and kissed her neck "Because, like I said before, you get ot that he hadn’t done it out of a malicious jealousy He’d done it to protect her, because that hat he did A guy who’d lost his true ranted that the fe over her And said female couldn’t be in a relationship with him unless she took that into account and ed hi the kids running around while Bruce yapped at their heels, Harley sreen and brown foliage twined around the wood Camo fabric, inflatable banana trees, and anie stuffed jungle aniht up until the kids each claimed one and ran off with them

Sadly, the party hadn’t been a surprise, since Cassidy had foreseen it Still, she was thoroughly enjoying herself, leaping around in her leopard costuer costu