Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I rolled my eyes, but the smile spread across my face anyway. “Don’t gloat.”
“I love a good gloat. Don’t take that from me. Now, where to, Shakespeare?”
I knew I needed to deal with the trailer and her things, but I wasn’t letting him go with me there. That I was doing alone. I preferred to do it alone.
“Back to my rental car. I need to go check in at the hotel.”
His brows drew together. “What hotel?”
“A Marriott in Jackson,” I replied.
“You don’t have anyone here to stay with?”
I laughed at that. “Did you forget high school? I didn’t have friends.”
He was quiet for a moment before saying, “I was your friend.”
Smirking, I met his gaze. He was serious.
“Ransom, you were a senior I tutored. You never spoke to me outside of tutoring sessions. We communicated via text. I was a loner.”
He winced, but he didn’t disagree with me. “I was a stupid teenage boy. My main focus was finding a tight cunt or mouth to sink my dick into. I didn’t realize then that the reason I was texting you was because you were different. You heard me. You weren’t trying to be the next girl in the bed of my truck. You were smart and fucking witty. But again, I was a kid. I had growing up to do in order to appreciate it. I just knew then that I wanted to talk to you.” He paused. “And as for the not talking to you in person, that was partly because if I had singled you out and talked to you, then you’d have been attacked. I stopped the bastards who had been harassing you, but the bitches would have been a harder lot to shut down.”
I tilted my head and studied him for a moment. He was being honest—or he was an excellent actor. If that was the real reason he’d not spoken to me in high school, then I understood. It wasn’t like his attention or acceptance would have shot me up the popularity poll. My appearance wasn’t going to change for a couple of years back then. I had to get out of Madison for that to happen.
“You don’t have to explain. I credit that season in my life to a major part of my success. I was used to rejection. It didn’t scare me the way it did most people. I also had something to prove. I wanted to have a reason to be proud of myself.”
A crooked grin curled his lips. “Yeah, well, you fucking did that and more.”
I shrugged. “I think being a late bloomer was a blessing. I hadn’t been distracted by the drama of relationships in high school.”
He chuckled, then leaned forward to start the engine. “If you’d have bloomed early, we’d not be sitting here today.”
“Why is that?”
Ransom glanced at me with a smirk. “I’d have fucked you. Then I’d have missed out on ten years of a friendship I needed, even though I hadn’t known it back then. But I do now.”
And my body went off in many different ways at the words I’d have fucked you coming out of his mouth.
Simmer down, Noa. It was past tense. He isn’t planning on fucking you now.
“I’ll admit that I have always been a little smug about the fact that I’m the only female that Ransom Carver didn’t toss aside,” I told him.
He laughed and nodded his head. “That you are, Shakespeare.”
I settled into the seat while he backed up, and we left the funeral home. Sure, I wanted to strip him naked and lick his body, but this was special. What we had. I didn’t want to lose it. If that meant I never got to experience him sexually, then I’d survive.
“Call the hotel and cancel your reservation.”
I swung my gaze over to him. “Why?”
“Because I can’t let you go stay at a fucking hotel while you deal with this shit. She might have been a terrible mother, but she was still your mother. You have to shut down and clean up the life she left behind, and you’re not going to go back to an empty hotel room at night after doing that all day. We’ve got an extra bedroom at the house you can stay in. Than moved out, and Halo turned it into a guest bedroom.”
Halo was married to Bane. He’d told me their story back when it unfolded. Although I’d never met her, I felt like I knew her already.
The death of Crosby had been so hard on all of them, but Halo came into their lives with a piece of Crosby left behind in the form of his unborn son. Then his older brother, who hated her and blamed her for his death, fell in love with her. Actually, Ransom had said Bane was so obsessed with her that he’d become a psycho. Which made me laugh. Ransom didn’t understand love. But then, did I? Sure, I’d written about it, and I enjoyed reading romance, but I’d never experienced it.