After the Sunset Read Online Free PDF Page B

beating had commenced. And while I had no worry that Rand would ever physically hurt me, there was still the possibility that if he ever got tired of me, learned to hate me, that I could be put out of my home. I could never allow that to happen to me again. Money was my security net, money I made myself.
    “Hello?”
    “Rand, I don’t wanna talk about—”
    “I won’t ever tell you to pack your things and go, Stef.”
    He knew me so well, knew all the fears that rode me.
    “I swear it.”
    “Rand—”
    “I won’t.”
    “Just—”
    “Believe me. Believe in me. Stefan… please.”
    God, the man knew I doubted him, doubted his love, the depth of it, the forever of it, and still he loved me.
    “I know you love me, and I know you wanna be here, and I know you still worry.”
    Shit.
    “Look at me.”
    I rolled my head sideways, and we were eye to eye, only inches separating us. It was very intimate; there was no hiding that close.
    “If you want, I can take my name off the joint account, and it can just be yours, and that way you’ll know it can never be taken from you. I’ll still put money in it, but I won’t touch it at all. Would that be better?”
    “That’s what’s called being kept, Rand, and no… that would not be better in the least.”
    “Fuck,” he grumbled. “I don’t mean it like—”
    “I know how you meant it,” I assured him. “It’s a very generous offer.”
    “Christ, now you’re making it sound dirty,” he groaned, and I sat up as he moved his hands, raking them through his thick hair.
    “Very generous for a guy like me.” I smiled, turning to look down at him, waggling my eyebrows. “A man with my background.”
    “Stefan.” He warned me.
    “A guy from the wrong side of the tracks.”
    “It ain’t funny.”
    “It’s a little funny,” I chuckled.
    “You don’t… you ain’t hearin’ me,” he said, and my laughter died in my throat when his voice cracked. He sat up beside me, crossing his legs so his left knee bumped me. “For a long time, all the guys would go home at night to their wives and their children and lit-up houses that smelled like food and got to hear all the good and all the bad that happened that day. I used to go home, and there weren’t none of that.”
    “Rand,” I began, putting my hand on his knee.
    “Lemme finish,” he said gently, taking my hand, sliding his fingers between mine, pressing my palm against him. “After you came, though, suddenly I’m just as excited to go home as everybody else. I open my front door and the music is on, and the lights are on, and the place smells amazing, and goddamn, Stef, even when I was married before, it wasn’t like that. Even if you’re runnin’ late and I get in first, just you walkin’ in the house makes it feel different. And I get it, ya know? You’re it, you’re my home.”
    I looked away because I was nothing. I was an orphan, and he had a home and a family and a ranch and everyone counting on him, and I was just… how could Rand want to build on me? How was I a foundation for anything?
    “Hey.”
    I turned back, slowly, taking a breath.
    His hand went to my cheek, his thumb sliding over my bottom lip, and I saw the warmth infuse his eyes, saw them darken, soften, because he was looking at me.
    “You don’t really know what you did today, so I’m gonna tell you.”
    I nodded because my voice was gone.
    “When you told me that you weren’t gonna look for a job in Dallas, I knew for sure you wanted to stay with me and have a home.”
    My focus became breathing.
    “I mean, before that, when you were runnin’ back and forth, doin’ all that driving, well, maybe you were tryin’ to keep one foot in your old life and one in your new one, ya know?”
    I did know and that was exactly what I had been doing.
    “I saw you needin’ air. Saw you gettin’ all panicky ’cause your life was fallin’ into place around you. The happier you got, the more you started fittin’ in and