“I’ll go get it ready,” Dominic moaned.
Bain grabbed hold of her hand as she went to follow him. He tugged her in against him. “I know these past few days, hell, weeks have been hard on you. Your family’s betrayal. The stalker. Just want you to know. I’ll always take care of you. Always protect you. Always believe in you.”
“My family didn’t suddenly change. I was just blind to their faults. Or maybe it was more that I was in denial. Now that they’re gone. That the threat of the stalker is gone, I feel free. Sure, I’m still having panic attacks and nightmares, but they’ll go eventually. Now, I have everything. I have you.”
“You do. Always.”
Epilogue
“Arianna? Arianna! Where are you? You better not be hiding from me!”
Well, she hadn’t been. But now that she’d heard the scolding note in his voice, she thought it might not be a bad idea.
There was just one problem. . .
She kind of needed him to rescue her. Seemed that while she might be a champion tree climber, she was not a champion at getting down from said tree. And it also seemed that she might have developed a slight problem with heights since she was a child.
This had been so much easier when she was eight.
“Arianna!” The worry in his voice decided things for her.
“Up here, Daddy!” she called out.
“Where?”
“Here! In the tree.” Okay, she realized how silly that sounded once she said it. They were surrounded by trees. “The really big one.”
“This really big one?”
His voice sounded closer and she glanced down to find him staring up at her, his hands on his hips, a scowl on his face.
“Yep.”
“What did I tell you about climbing trees, Arianna?” he rumbled at her.
She bit her lip. “Not to do it without you.”
He folded his arms across his chest.
“I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”
“Oh yes,” he drawled. “Big trouble.”
Yeah. Damn it. That’s what she’d thought. She’d been dying to climb this tree ever since she’d seen it, but every time she’d asked, he’d refused to let her, claiming it was too high.
Turns out, he was right.
But she wouldn’t tell him that.
She knew she’d be in trouble if she got caught trying to climb it, but she’d figured she could get up and down before he got home.
Turns out, she was wrong.
She also wouldn’t tell him that.
She’d lived here at Sanctuary Ranch for three weeks now and she loved it. The press was still hounding her for her story, but it was much easier to ignore them from here. Before they’d left Manhattan, her parents had turned up at her apartment. A last-ditch effort to get at her. But after Bain had a word with them, they’d left. Bain had refused to tell her what he’d said. Which might be for the best.
Before embarking on their RV adventure, she’d called Estelle. Just because Joe hurt her, didn’t mean she had to cut herself off completely from the older woman. Estelle told her that she believed Larry had discovered Joe’s gambling issue and had played him. Apparently, Larry would often give Joe inside tips he’d heard about different horses and races. In the beginning the tips had paid off, then things had started to go downhill.