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)
Her hand lifts, shaky, reaching for my belt.
I catch her wrist midair.
“No,” I say, soft but deadly serious. I lean in, kissing her jaw, her cheek, her temple. “You don’t get me tonight. Tonight’s yours.”
She swallows hard. Her fingers curl around my arm. “But I want to—”
“I know.” I kiss her again, slower this time. “That’s what makes it even better.”
She blinks up at me, glassy-eyed, flushed, her mouth trembling in the aftermath.
And I smile.
It’s a little cocky considering, but it’s also real.
A smile that means she just fucked me up worse than I’ve ever been, and she doesn’t even know it yet.
I take her in my arms, tucking her to my chest and within minutes, literally maybe two, she falls asleep, and I’m almost shocked by the sense of pride that swells within me.
It’s not even necessarily about the moment she’s trusted me with. Well, maybe a little, but it’s more than that. It’s all of it. All of this.
Reaching out, I slide the pad of my pinkie along her temple, moving her hair from her face. She burrows closer, sighing into me, and I hold her tighter, my gaze flicking over her beautiful features.
It’s scary to say it out loud, but this feels a bit like a change in the tides—or a free play maybe is a better way to put it.
I got the girl, and instead of fate following that up with something fucked, I find out my hard work might just pay off.
Maybe this girl, this kindhearted, gorgeous girl, is the exception.
The one good thing I’m allowed without the universe’s retaliation.
Maybe, I no longer have to brace for a hit to come.
Maybe I really can keep the girl and the game.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Paige
“Thank you, Paige, sweetheart. I know you had to miss class this morning to come with me.”
I smile over at my grandpa, but it’s a little stiff. “It’s okay. I planned in advance. Chase stayed late while I finished my essay and he’s going to turn it in with his own, so I shouldn’t lose points for late work or anything.”
“Did he now? That was awful kind of him to offer.”
I frown slightly. “Well, I asked him and it’s our class together so, it’s—Grandpa, are you sick?” I say suddenly, surprised by how much the thought scares me. I may not know him all that well yet, but at some point, he went from Grant to Grandpa in my mind.
His features soften, as if he knows exactly where my thoughts have gone, and reaches over, taking my hand in his. “No, sweetheart. I’m not sick. Not like your father was, anyway. I’m just doing that thing we all dread,” he says, smiling when I blink in question. “Getting old.”
A low chuckle leaves me and his follows.
“Okay, well. I guess we can’t do much about that. So, why did you need me to bring you today?”
“Well, I had to have a couple tests run, and it seems the doctors were right. My heart is getting older a little faster than the rest of me, but it’s not something a cocktail of medication can’t handle.”
“Do you take anything now?” I ask, realizing I don’t know much about his health. Or anything, for that matter.
Has he ever had issues before? Did he get ear infections a lot as a kid, like I did?
The man isn’t built like a grandpa. He looks like he stepped right off the set of The Sopranos, in his pin-striped suit and with silvery-white hair.
“Not so much as an aspirin. I, well, sweetheart…” He looks out the window a moment and then turns back to me.
“This old man used to train often, when I was younger. Boxing and just good old gym-junkie stuff, all in the name of fun and in the need to feed my vanity, of course.” He grins, and my lips curve up. “Truth be told, not that it’s much of a secret, but I never had much of a life outside of work. My job being a mind game of sorts, I needed something physical, so I always made sure my buildings had a gym for blowing off steam, and let me tell you, when you lose a nine-million-dollar deal to some young buck fresh out of college with concepts he has no idea how to put in motion, punching a bag is the perfect therapy.”
My lips twitch. “I bet it is.”
He nods, but slowly his smile fades. “Yeah, but…being in the gym and marrying the job like I did left little time for family. Little time for your child, who you didn’t realize needed you until it was too late, and help was the last thing they wanted.”
Sadness washes over me, creating a heaviness in my shoulders. We both know who he’s talking about.
“Your mother was quite brilliant, Paige,” he shares. “A gifted little girl in any area she put her mind to. It was the freedom I unintentionally gave her that led her down the wrong path. Foolishly, I assumed she would be fine, ready when the time came to take my place, like I’d always intended for her to. I didn’t know how deeply the addiction had claimed her, but the moment I realized, I stopped training. I couldn’t stomach putting a pill in my mouth and swallowing, even though they were just your average pre-workout stuff.”