~CHAPTER FORTY THREE~
I nod slowly.
“Just relax,” he says. “Get comfortable. Breathe.”
He shows me how. Inhale and exhale. Slow and steady. I follow him, copying his rhythm. After a few tries, I laugh. He laughs too. It feels light and normal.
Aside from Cassie, I haven’t sat like this with a man—talking, laughing, just existing without tension.
After everything I’d been through, men were nothing more than toys to me, temporary pleasure without attachment. I’d never known what a real relationship felt like. Even marrying Hardin was a contract, not love, yet a small part of me still hoped for something human in it.
Instead, he turns it into hell.
Blake’s voice pulls me back.
“Tell me,” he says gently. “What are your favorite things?”
I smile. “Easy.”
I lean back. “Making a lot of
