“Matthieu?” she whispered.
Merde.
“Désolé, Bébé,” he told her. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I like you, Matthieu,” she said on a sigh.
All right.
Perhaps she wasn’t as awake as he’d first thought. He couldn’t imagine her telling him that if she was fully conscious.
“Do you?” he murmured. “What do you like about me?”
“Everything.”
He grinned. Yeah, he should leave the room and let her go back to sleep without revealing anymore of her secrets. But he wasn’t that good of a person.
“Well, not everything. Because you are bossy. You like rules and consequences. That’s no fun. And sometimes you snore.”
“I do not snore,” he said.
“Uh-huh, sure you don’t. But don’t worry, you’re also handsome and sexy and protective and kind. Never had someone care about me so much.”
Her family had a lot to answer for. Because she lapped up his attention and care like someone who had been starved of it for far too long.
There was a question burning in his gut, but he shouldn’t ask.
“Wish you were mine,” she said. “My boyfriend. My Daddy.”
Okay.
Well, maybe that answered his question.
“You ever had a Daddy?” he asked.
“No. No way. Maya can’t have a Daddy.”
“Why not?” he asked, confused. If anyone needed a Daddy desperately, it was her. She needed someone who would force her to put her own care first. Who would ensure she ate and slept and kept herself safe.
“Can’t let anyone close. They might leave me. Everyone leaves me. Not enough to stick around for. Stupid. Ugly. Unlovable.”
Anger flooded through him. That fire flared to life inside of him. From embers to flames.
He knew where those words had come from and they weren’t from her.
That bitch of a stepmother.
Brody had looked into that bitch, but when he had more time he would get him to go deeper. See if there was anything they could use to ruin her.
Or whether they would have to create something.
He didn’t care what he had to do, Kathryn would pay for the way that she’d treated his girl.
“Do not listen to her,” he told Maya fiercely. “You hear me? Whatever she said to you is not true.”
“Am useless. Ruined dinner.”
“So you can’t cook? Not the end of the world. And I prefer to cook for you anyway. I like taking care of you.”
