Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Paige waves them away, and I nod my chin, turning back to her.
She smiles and hops down, picking up the others’ ice cream cups, so I grab the last few and follow her to the trash bin. We fall in line together, heading toward her dorm building.
“You know,” she says as we get closer. “I think the last party I went to with you—well, not with you but that you were actually at—might have been last year at Halloween. That was almost a year ago now.” She peeks over at me. “You remember that?”
“Oh, trust me.” I chuckle. “I remember. You all dressed as the Powerpuff Girls and us guys about had a heart attack.”
She smiles. “I don’t know. Brady seemed pleased to see Cam in that.”
“Yeah, ’cause he was still pretending they were just friends and not already falling in love with each other.”
She smiles at the grass, and I reach for her hand, threading our fingers together. “I slept in your dorm that night.”
“You did. And you know what I did?”
“Snuck out before I woke up and sent Cam in to get me and make sure I made it out and home safe?”
“Guilty.” I chuckle. “But before that I counted to a thousand, forward and backward, trying to calm down and keep myself from climbing out of bed and picking you up because I couldn’t stand the thought of you under Brady’s covers.” I look ahead, at the path. “I just wanted to put you down in mine.”
“What?!” she laughs, tugging on my hand a little. “Are you serious?”
“Yep.” I chuckle, spinning and picking her up, her little legs coming around me, arms wrapping around my neck. “You drove me crazy, Angel. Even when you didn’t know it.”
“I wanted to drive you crazy, but I didn’t think it was working,” she admits, sliding her lips over mine. “I’m not good at the whole flirty stuff, but I wanted you to see me. You just never gave me any indication that you did.”
Regret rolls through me, and I run my knuckle along her cheek. “I know. That was me trying to figure my own shit out. I wouldn’t have been able to be any good to you at the time.”
Her forehead falls to mine. “And now?”
I take a deep breath, smiling softly, maybe a little sorrowfully. I don’t reiterate what I already shared, that I’m still not sure I’m worth the hassle. That I might be nothing but a disappointment in the end, but I hope. “Now I just hope I can be because I feel good, Paige. About us. This.”
“Me too,” she whispers.
Some of the weight lifts off my shoulders at her confession and I hold her a little tighter.
As we reach her dorm door, she slides down, tapping her key card and pushing it open. I walk her to her dorm room, no one even batting an eye—one, because it’s college, and two, this building is coed.
I tug her to me, kissing her good night, but she pulls back, biting on her lip anxiously.
Staring into her blue eyes, I run my thumb along her lower lip. “Don’t feel like you have to ask me to come inside, Angel. You don’t. And if you want to but you’re nervous that that means something you’re not ready for, don’t be. I’d like nothing more than to just hold you, and if I don’t think I’d sound like I was trying to be sneaky and get you into my bed, I would have asked you to stay at the house with me earlier, instead of following the others out of the party when they left.”
“So you want to stay the night with me?”
My grin is slow. “Yeah, baby. I do. Will you let me?”
She smiles, pulling me inside.
I expect her to close the door, and then maybe reach for some pajamas or grab the remote for late-night, trashy TV.
She doesn’t do either of those things.
No, she surprises me, instead pressing her palms to my chest, and she doesn’t stop until my knees hit the edge of the bed. I go down, ass meeting the mattress, and she follows, climbing straight into my lap like she owns it. Like she knows she’s the only thing I’d ever let take that kind of control.
Her knees bracket my thighs, her weight a slow, deliberate tease as she settles. Eyes locked on mine, mouth parted, waiting, for what, I don’t know. Permission? A sign to stop?
Not happening.
I grin, a little crooked and a little mean.
“You drive me mad,” I murmur, running my hands up the backs of her thighs, slowly. “You know that?”
Her answer’s a shaky breath, but her fingers slide into my hair, pulling just enough to make my gut clench. I let her. Let her take. Let her think for a second she’s running the show.