Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30983 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
I search for the right words, but hell if my tongue isn’t tied in knots. “Men have a protective instinct. At least, the good men do. I can just see you making every man you meet…want to be a hero. Your hero.”
“That’s sweet. But I don’t need to be protected. I learned how to set boundaries, so I don’t get my feelings hurt as often anymore.” She looks down at my knuckle, which has started tracing the hem of her skirt, of its own accord. Fuck me. “It has taken me longer than it should have to set boundaries with my father, but after today, I think it’s time.”
I don’t know what to say to that. She’s probably right. Phil is a great friend, but obviously he has some work to do on his relationship with Haylo.
“There are all kinds of ways to be sensitive, though, isn’t there? Emotionally.” She guides my knuckle an inch higher, leaving it beneath her skirt where I can’t help but trace the softest skin I’ve ever felt in my life. The skin of Haylo’s high inner thigh. “I don’t know if I’m sensitive yet…physically.”
My dick starts to pulse like a bad omen. “What do you mean?”
“No one has ever helped me find out,” she murmurs, leaning up to speak a breath away from my ear, her gentle confession shooting heat down my spine, need like I’ve never felt pooling in my stomach.
“Are you trying convince me you’re a virgin?”
“Why do you need to be convinced?”
“Angel,” I scoff. “Men must lose their minds over you. I wouldn’t even believe you were a virgin if this was an all-girls school.”
“It’s not. Yet here I am. Still innocent.” Her lips brush my ear, and I have to grit my fucking teeth to prevent come from spilling into my briefs. “I know a way you can find out.”
Holy hell. “I thought you said you wouldn’t date a pilot.”
She blinks those vibrant eyes up at me. “Who said anything about dating?”
This is when it really hits me. How much trouble I’ve landed myself in here. I’ve still got tonight and a full day tomorrow with Haylo before I’m due back at work…and I want to raw dog her so hard, I can already hear the headboard cracking down the middle. But I can’t do that. I can’t betray my best friend’s trust like that. No way.
Furthermore, I know if I fuck this angel, virgin or not, she’s going to end up with a rock the size of Denver on her finger. And I have a feeling she’d fight me tooth and nail on that. She doesn’t want a pilot. She’s made that abundantly clear.
Not to mention, she’s eighteen, for the love of God. In her first year of college.
What the hell am I going to do?
“Dinner is served!” shouts the sorority girl from earlier, the one who had the bullhorn, saving from having to answer Haylo’s question. For now.
But no number of courses is going to save me for long.
Not when my hunger for her is this severe—and worsening by the second.
CHAPTER 4
Haylo
My plan to seduce Joel is coming along swimmingly.
Am I better at this seduction stuff than I realized?
All through dinner, his big hand never leaves my thigh. He glowers at the men near us at the table. More than once, I catch his gaze on my breasts, my mouth. And I’m not going to lie…I am significantly warm and tense, too. Inside my panties, in the center of my chest. Tingles are crawling all over me, leaving me buzzing.
His voice belongs to a man. It doesn’t crack and he doesn’t stutter. His words are thoughtful and he’s listening to me. Nothing like the boys my age who attempt to ask me out. Not even close.
Joel is a presence. He oozes capability and strength.
As an air force pilot, he must be brave. As a commercial one, he must have ambition. Work ethic.
I find myself eager to know more about him…before I seduce him.
It doesn’t hurt to study my subject a little, right?
It’s not like I like him. Not as a potential boyfriend.
Heck no.
I am not falling into the trap of dating a man who spends most of his time flying away from me, just like my father. I used to watch my mother cry every time Phil left the house, smelling his T-shirts while he was away. Reanimating only when he was due home.
No, my little plan is just for me. It might be petty. Not healthy in the slightest. But I’m going to act selfishly for once. I’m going to disregard my father’s feelings and do what feels good. What I want. After I even the playing field, I will set my boundaries and stick to them. Phil isn’t going to get my hopes up anymore. For once, I’m taking.