Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
With her, I have hope the way I used to know it. I want to plan for the future rather than just endure it.
“That was really nice,” I rasp. I stroke her hair, then bury my fingers in the strands and find the back of her neck.
She snorts. “If it was just nice, then I’m—”
“Nice being the nicest word I can think of while my brain is a scrambled mess.”
I kiss her and try to angle her toward the bed. She takes a few steps, then breaks away. She takes hold of my hand and clasps it between hers. After a beat, she brushes kisses over my knuckles.
“It’s not that I don’t want to do more. Because I do. Badly. But I’m so far gone that if you get me in that bed, I’m going to want to stay, and if I want to stay, then there’s no way I’m getting up and going home like I promised my parents I would. They’ll worry. It’s not that they’re waiting up, ready to pounce on me with an inquisition or anything, but I told them one thing, and it’s a little bit like giving my word. I don’t want to break that or give them one more reason to get upset.”
She shudders as I draw her into a hug and hold her tight, inhaling her and the lush fragrance of her hair. “I respect that.”
“I’m going to make you a promise,” she says. “Tomorrow night, you can eat my pussy to your heart’s content and fuck me senseless after. Yeah?”
Will there ever be a time when she doesn’t surprise me?
“Anything you want. If it’s in my power to give, it’s yours.” I mean that in every sense.
I’ve never been able to give a promise like that for fear of it getting abused, but Dulcie kisses both my cheeks and smiles her dazzling, light-beam smile at me, easing my heart down into total surrender.
“I just want you. But that’s the most complicated ask, isn’t it?”
“In the past, it would have been, but I’ll do my best,” I say.
She kisses me, lingering over my mouth and memorizing every detail the same way I’m doing with her. “Come for breakfast tomorrow? Mom and Dad will be at the bakery, but we can head there after. We’ll have pie. Or eggs. You can take your pick. If you trust me to cook for you.”
“I’d trust you with anything,” I tell her sincerely.
She lets me wrap my arms around her and hold her, proving she already knows that as she silently rests her cheek against my chest in mutual agreement and an unspoken repeat of the vow that I’m safe with her.
Chapter twelve
Dulcie
“You have cats.”
That’s the first thing Luca says to me after walking into the house.
Dad left for the bakery at the crack of dawn, and after a quick cup of coffee with me, Mom went to help out. When my dad took over running the bakery, he was still working with my grandfather. My mom started helping out there when my grandpa’s arthritis became so bad that he could no longer perform even the most basic functions without extreme pain. When he and Mom wanted to start a family, that’s when he hired an apprentice of sorts. Luca. After Luca left, it was just my dad managing alone until I was a few years old, which was when my mom could go and help out where and when she could. She went to work there with my dad full-time as soon as I was in school.
When I was old enough to legally work, I took her place and let her concentrate mostly on the paperwork, which my dad always hated and was too busy and exhausted to do. I went from just hanging out in the bakery, learning and helping, to getting paid. Mom had to take my place while I was in college because Dad just couldn’t bear to hire anyone else.
Mom had to take my place while I was gone these past few weeks, too, but she doesn’t seem to have minded. She was in a good mood this morning.
Dad goes to bed early since he gets up early. He was asleep when I got home last night, and gone this morning before I woke up.
Over the coffee Mom and I shared before she left, she promised that she’d talked Dad down last night, and we were more than welcome to come to the bakery whenever we wanted to. The bakery is closed on Sunday, and she made sure I knew we were invited for dinner. As in, it would break her heart if we weren’t here.
I have yet to fill Luca in on any of this. I picked him up from his hotel at nine in my little old quarter-ton truck. I run a lot of errands for the bakery, so it’s just nice to have a truck, and it’s tiny enough that I can park it anywhere.