Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94279 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94279 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “Not your fault.”
“What’s your name?”
“Whitney. What’s yours?”
“You went to the game today, but you don’t know my name?”
She smiled. “Wilder Hayes.”
“Why’d you ask if you already knew?”
Her hand was still on my bicep. She rubbed up and down my arm. “Are you going to buy me that drink or what?”
“What are you having?” I lifted a hand to call the bartender.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe a hard seltzer? Something portable, not in a glass.”
“You going somewhere?”
She bit her bottom lip. “I hope so.”
I ordered her a hard seltzer and added another beer for me. While we waited, I stared at her lips. “I like your lipstick.”
“Thank you. I like your eyes.”
I looked down. “I like your legs.”
She squeezed my arm again. “I like your muscles.”
I was standing, so I could see right down her shirt. A healthy amount of cleavage popped out of her top. I lifted my eyes and met hers with a smile. “Fuck the drinks. You want to get out of here?”
Her sexy-as-shit lips curved to a grin. “It’s about time.”
My dorm room was five minutes away, but it took us twenty because of all the times we stopped to make out. We had half our clothes off in the hall before I even got the door open. It might’ve been the easiest encounter I’d ever had with a woman.
So my father’s words should’ve set off an alarm.
“What comes easy won’t last.”
But all the thoughts I had went out the window with the sound of my pants coming undone.
11
WILDER
“Well, it sucks,” I said. “But I think you’re making the right decision.”
Andrew sighed. “I wouldn’t be able to look her in the eyes if I didn’t come clean. And she deserves honesty.”
The following morning, our plane had finally leveled off to cruising altitude, so the crew got up to move about the cabin again. One of the flight attendants, Mia, cast a flirty smile in my direction as she passed.
Andrew noticed, too. “I take it you know her?”
“I take this flight a lot.”
My buddy side-eyed me. He knew the answer without me having to spell it out, but just in case he didn’t, Mia walked over. I was seated in the window seat. She leaned in, giving me and my buddy a clear view down her blouse as she set the drink I hadn’t asked for in front of me.
She smiled. “Staying at the St. Regis this trip?”
I shook my head. “Nah. I have business in a different area.”
“Oh. Okay.” She stood, her smile morphing from flirty to forced, and rested a hand on Andrew’s shoulder. “Can I get you anything else, hun?”
He lifted his still-half-full Bloody Mary. “I’m good. Thanks.”
We both watched her walk to the galley area a few rows up. Andrew shook his head. “I thought you said you were staying at the St. Regis?”
I met his eyes. “I am.”
“Gotcha.” He sipped his drink. “Everything okay with you? It’s not like you to turn down a nice offer like that.”
I sighed. “Was I that bad?”
“What are you talking about?”
“In the last twenty-four hours, I’ve gotten invitations from three women I’ve slept with before.”
Andrew stuck his bottom lip out in a pout. “Aww, you poor baby. You’re single and got offered sex from three hot women. Meanwhile, I fucked up the rest of my life. Your life really sucks.”
I chuckled. “I’m serious. Have I been that big of a whore?”
“You once slept with a woman you met at a bar on a Friday night, and the next day she called and asked if you would sleep with her friend who needed cheering up. And you did.”
“What was I supposed to do? Let the woman be miserable?”
Andrew smiled. “You’re a whore, my friend. But no judgment here. Especially not now. Besides, it’s not like you to pretend to be something you’re not.”
I frowned.
My buddy’s forehead creased. “Seriously? What’s going on with you?”
Of all my friends, Andrew knew me the best. He was also brutally honest. I shifted in my seat to see his expression. “Do you think I have relationship potential? I mean, one that lasts more than two months and involves more than just fucking each other’s brains out?”
Andrew shrugged. “We’ve been in one for, what, twenty-five years?”
“I don’t mean a friendship.”
“I know what you’re asking. But I don’t think the criteria are that different. A relationship of any kind is built on honesty, trust, and open communication. We have that. So you clearly have the ability to share those things with someone.”
“That’s being a friend, not a boyfriend.”
“The only thing that’s really different is the sex, being monogamous.”
I pointed to my buddy. “That’s the part I’m worried about.”
“That’s only because you haven’t met a woman who holds your interest. Once you do, it won’t be hard.” He closed his eyes. “And I realize that sounds ridiculously hypocritical considering the reason I’m flying home, but it’s the truth. I might be the relationship guy of the two of us, and you’re the whore, but I know you’d never cheat after…”