Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79800 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“I am focused.” She smiles, and damn if that tilt of her lips doesn’t wrap around my heart like a fist.
“Tell me why you think that?”
“I know you love her, Foster. I know you have feelings for someone who is not me, and I’m okay with that. Last night, I didn’t think it was going to make you fall in love with me,” she says, her voice soft. “You gave me something I wasn’t sure that I’d ever have. You gave me comfort and trust and a moment that, no matter where life leads us, I’ll never forget.” She drops my cock, thank God, because it’s hard to concentrate when she’s stroking me, and moves her hands to my face. “You will always be a part of me because of last night. Thank you for that. It was more than I ever could have imagined it would be.”
Her words swirl in my mind as I process what she’s saying. There are so many things I want to say, and so many I’m afraid to say—the boy who faced rejection his entire life. The young man, putting his heart on the line, says, I’m not ready to do it again. However, there’s a part of me that wants to scream at her that she’s wrong. I might have thought that I was still in love with Violet, but Eden made me see that I’m not. Time has healed that wound, and only a scar remains. Instead, an idea forms, and before I can talk myself out of it, I’m saying, “We should go see the ocean.”
“What?” Her eyes widen in shock. “Foster, we can’t just go to the ocean.”
“Sure, we can.”
“I have to work.”
“Eden, babe, you work here for me. As long as I report that you’re here doing what’s expected, the agency doesn’t care as long as they get my money.”
“You can’t pay me to go see the ocean, Foster. It’s not right.”
I bend, pressing my lips to hers. “That’s why I want to. You don’t care about how much money I have. Come on. It’s been ages since I’ve gone anywhere—not since the guys and I used to take trips in the offseason. But now that they have families, we don’t do that. Let me give you another first, Eden. Let me take you to the ocean.”
“Really?” she asks, her eyes watering.
“Yes, really.” I roll off her, my cock weeping at the loss of her heat, but this is more important. Grabbing my phone from the nightstand, I tap at the screen, pulling up the airline. “There’s a flight leaving for Florida at three.” I glance over at her. “Can you be ready and packed by then?”
“Foster,” she says, sitting up, using the sheet to cover her nakedness. Damn shame if you ask me. “We can’t.”
“Oh, baby, we can, and we are. It’s nine now, so we have to be at the airport no later than one.”
“I’ve never flown before, Foster. I’m so out of my element right now. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how to pack. I’ve never taken a vacation in my life, unless you count the trip to Gatlinburg I took with Carrie for her bachelorette party weekend. We rented a cabin, drank lots of wine, and ate too much junk food.”
“It’s fine. Anything that you forget, we can buy while we’re there.”
“Foster, I can’t afford this.”
“It’s your birthday weekend, and it’s on me.”
“You already gave me my present.”
“Well, this is the rest of it,” I tell her.
“I can’t let you do that. Flights are so expensive, and yes, I make good money, but I have to budget and be frugal, and this trip is not in the budget.”
“This trip is on me,” I repeat.
“I don’t even own luggage. I packed in a backpack when I went with Carrie,” she says, her voice small as she looks down at her hands, twisting them in the sheet.
“Fuck the luggage. We’ll go shopping when we get there, and buy everything we need,” I say impulsively.
“Foster,” she whines. “No. I can’t let you do that.”
“Please, baby, I want to do this. I want to be there when you see the ocean for the first time. I want to experience that through your eyes. I can afford to do this, Eden. I don’t feel obligated or pressured; I want to. Please let me. It can be our joint birthday celebration,” I tell her.
“That’s not fair if you're paying for it all,” she counters.
Putting my phone on the bed, I turn and lift her onto my lap. The sheet falls away, and she gasps, but I keep it from her, gripping it in my fist. “I want this with you. I want to give you this. Please let me.”
“Foster, it’s wrong. I don’t want your money.”
I smile, a true, genuine smile, one that I know the guys have been seeing from me lately. One I can’t contain. “I know that. That makes me want to take you even more. Just a few days. We’ll stay on the beach, eat, drink, bury our toes in the sand, maybe take a boat ride and look for dolphins or something. I don’t care what we do when we get there. I want to take you to the ocean. Give me this, please.”