Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 115683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
“I’ll help you change the sheets after we’re done,” he says, climbing back into bed beside me. He doesn’t bother to slide under the covers. He just lies there, his naked body on full display.
My soul must leave my body because suddenly I’m levitating, floating around the room like a dumbstruck balloon. “We’re not actually done?”
He folds his arm behind his head on the pillow and looks at me. “You’re outta your damn mind if you think I got a sitter for one measly round of sex.”
I sip my water. “I was that good, huh?”
“Honey.” He puts his hand on my naked thigh underneath the covers. “You don’t need the ego boost—”
“Ha.” But I do. I really, really do.
“I’m gonna give it to you, though, because it’s well deserved. I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to sleep after this it was so good. Not just the sex but the date.” His voice softens. “I needed this. Thank you.”
I swallow, hard. “I did too.”
He nods at the notebook on my bedside table. “Can I ask what you’ve been working on?”
I whip my head in his direction. “Whoa whoa whoa. Since when do you not want to light all my ideas on fire?”
Rolling onto his side, he lifts his free shoulder. “It’s a recent development.”
“Tell me more.” I grab the notebook.
“Not to get too into the weeds here, but…I don’t know. I’m starting to think that maybe shaking things up a little might be a good idea.”
I blink at him. “Can you say that again? Just so I can be sure I heard it correctly. Because when we first met—”
“I was the worst. I know. I was wrong. Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
His smile is back, and it takes my breath away. “You’ve been the best surprise, Lainey Brown. In ways I never anticipated. I’m still terrified of fucking up the legacy that’s being passed on to me.”
“Sounds like the kind of fear that might never go away.”
“Right.” He looks at me for a long beat, searching my face. “But if I can be honest about my fears—if I can find some semblance of acceptance that change is just a part of life—then maybe I can, you know, actually live it.”
The man is actively trying to get me to fall in love with him. That’s the only explanation I can think of for why he’d say these things.
Why he’d be so open-minded after shutting me out the day we met.
“I like that idea. Acceptance.” I page through the notebook until I find the sheet I’m looking for. “It’s so hard not to wish things or people were different.”
He leans in to see the page, brushing my arm with his lips. “Who do you wish were different?”
“My parents, obviously. I wish they were happy. Or that they’d choose happiness, because right now…” Sighing, I shake my head. “It’s just sad.”
“That’s rough. Hard to be around, I imagine.”
You beautiful bastard. Of course you’d get it.
“Very. Especially when I’m the only one who seems to notice…well, anything that happens in our family. My brothers—I mean, I love them, but they’re—”
“Different from you.”
Yes. “Yes. Probably need to accept that fact too.”
“Probably.” Colton nudges me with his knee. “Easier said than done. Something I’ve been working on for, oh, thirty years now.”
“Ew, you’re old.”
“I prefer ‘experienced.’”
“It’s cool to see your parents’ relationship, though. They seem happy.”
Colton sighs, his warm breath making my arms break out in goose bumps. “Dale and Paige aren’t perfect. But yeah, they still dig each other after however many years together. I wish I knew what their secret sauce was.”
“Everybody changes. Maybe…I mean, I obviously don’t know your parents all that well, but maybe they were just honest with each other through everything. Maybe they were best friends from the start who could talk to each other about anything.”
Colton’s Adam’s apple works on a swallow. He presses a kiss to my arm. “I like that idea. Being honest. Not sweeping shit under the rug.”
My heart twists. “Never too late, you know.”
He doesn’t reply to that. Instead, he grabs the corner of my notebook in his hand. “Wanna keep doing it?”
“I always wanna keep doing it with you,” I say, laughing.
“Well, we’re going to do that too. But I’m talking about honesty.”
“You think I’ve been honest all night?”
“Lainey, you’ve been honest from the get-go. Why’d you think I couldn’t stand you at first? Because you called me out on my bullshit. It was annoying. And the biggest fucking turn-on ever.”
Butterflies.
Everywhere. In my chest. My belly. My thighs.
“Thanks?”
“It is a compliment. I mean.” He glances down.
I gasp, delighted, when I see that he’s getting hard again. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish.” He runs a hand over his face. “I love fucking you, but being this turned on is—”
“A lot. I know.”
He loves fucking me.
I just might fucking love him.
Too soon. I know it’s way too soon. But if he keeps being, well, him…