Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113130 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113130 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 377(@300wpm)
“When I said we’re friends.”
“You literally walked away from me and barfed your brains out, so was I supposed to be like, ‘by the way, we’re more than friends’?”
“Touché.” She grins. “Shared values,” she says and I laugh. “Fine,” she finally gives in, almost unwillingly. “You have everything I want in a relationship, but what about you?”
“What about me?”
“What do you want?”
“I want a woman who’s smoking hot,” I begin as I move my hands to her ass again. “Check.” She rolls her eyes at me. “I want a woman who cares about my family and is okay with me being so close to them. Check again.” She smiles. “I want a woman who is with me because she likes me and not because of what I do or what that I can get them on a red carpet. Check again.” I move one hand to make a check mark in the air. “I want a woman who is going to call me out on my bullshit and not be scared to talk to me about things. That’s a half check, you need to work on that.”
“Am I not communicating with you right now?”
“Only because I forced the conversation. You don’t just want to be friends with me, just like I don’t want to be friends with you. Also, if I have to hear you tell one more person that we’re just friends I’m going to lose my fucking mind.” I watch her look down. “Admit it.” I move my hand from her ass to her chin and lift it up so she’s looking at me. The pressure in my chest tightens. “Admit it,” I urge softly. “Tell me I’m not the only one feeling something here.”
“It’s too fast,” she repeats softly. “We’ve been together for what? A week, two…tops.”
“According to who?” I ask her and don’t wait for her to answer. “My father went out one night, took one look at Evelyn, and the rest is history. One fucking night and he knew. We didn’t know that one night would change our lives, but would you go back and redo it?” I wait, holding my breath as she stares at me.
Her eyes stare into mine as she whispers, “No.” I close my eyes with a sigh of relief. “I wouldn’t change it.”
“So we have the next six months to get to know each other and give this our best fucking shot.” She inhales deeply. “Will you take that shot with me?”
She moves her head to the side, back and forth, and looks up at the ceiling like she’s thinking about it. “Fine,” she huffs out, trying not to give me a full-blown smile, “we’ll give it a shot.”
twenty-three
Ariella
The phone rings from the side table and I pick it up. “Hello,” I say as my eyes stay on the ocean in front of me.
“Don’t you hello me,” Lexi hisses out. “You’ve been MIA for about a week now and nothing.” I look over at Jaxon and smile.
I’m sitting in the corner of the couch outside on the balcony that’s off his bedroom. My legs are draped over his lap as we just watched the sun rise. “It has not been a week,” I tell her. “I texted you two days ago.”
“You texted me the letter K. Not even the whole word. I said I need to talk to you and all you said was a K.” I roll my lips and look over at Jaxon, thinking about when she sent the text. I was in the kitchen, leaning over the counter. I was wearing one of his T-shirts that just covered my ass, barely. Well, he then got on his knees behind me and feasted on me at the exact time I was answering her text. Needless to say, I forgot all about it when he then picked me up, set me on the counter, and fucked me silly.
“Sorry about that,” I say, looking over at Jaxon as I sip my now lukewarm tea. “I got distracted and then forgot.”
“You got distracted?” She laughs. “That means you were in the middle of having sex.”
“I wasn’t in the middle.” I smile. “It was just the beginning.” Jaxon chuckles to himself, grabbing my legs in his hands and pulling them up so he can slip out from under me.
“I’m going to shower,” he says softly, bending and kissing my lips. “Come join me if you want.”
I put the phone on mute. “I want to, but I haven’t talked to Lexi in a week,” I tell him and he smiles.
“Fine, I’ll cash in my IOU tonight when I get home from the game.”
I laugh as I press the unmute button. “Well, as you can hear from me answering your call, I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m fine. Nothing fun ever happens in my life anyway,” she pouts. “How are you feeling? Are you still in LA?”