Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
She had to remember that to learn from mistakes, one had to make them first.
“You do know we’ve only known each other for a little over a week, right?” she reminded him.
“Fucked women after only knowin’ them for two minutes. Got a point?” He popped the last of his toast into his mouth and chewed.
She groaned under her breath. He seemed the type of guy to relentlessly pursue what he wanted until he got it.
A frustrating combination of being both stubborn and persistent.
She already knew she was going to lose this battle and the couch would be empty tonight. “So tell me, you had to put some thought into this, right? How do we explain the sleeping situation to our children?”
“Easy. Couch is killin’ my back. That’s a fuckin’ fact. Gonna tell them while you’re here, the adults are gonna share one room, the kids the other. That’s it. We don’t gotta tell ‘em that I’m divin’ face first into your pussy every night. Or that you’re ridin’ my dick. Ain’t their business. What we do behind a locked door is ours.”
A breath had hissed from her at the thought of him eating her out every night. That plan didn’t exactly sound horrible. “But beyond the sex.”
“Outside of the bedroom, we act like roommates. Inside, then…” He grinned and shrugged.
He made it sound so damn simple when it really wasn’t.
“This won’t be an issue once my house is sold. Once it is, I plan on moving somewhere Vic won’t find us.” Hopefully. Though, that might mean moving to Antarctica. “In the meantime, if I allow this, I’ll have to continually remind Wren that our stay here is only for a short time.”
With a shake of his head, his snort sounded suspiciously like “allow.” He shoved his chair back, grabbed their mugs, and headed over to top both off with more coffee.
Taryn hadn’t even realized she had paused her fork halfway to her mouth to watch that whole production.
Like a damn porno. Bow chicka wow wow.
When he turned to come back to the table, she quickly stuck the fork in her mouth to hide the fact it had been gaped open. At least she hadn’t been drooling.
Why the hell did he have to be so damn hot and not some ugly troll? It would make resisting him easier.
After setting the full mugs on the table, Stone settled back into his chair with a grunt. “What’s goin’ on with your house?”
“The agent’s having the first open house this weekend.”
“You gotta be there?”
She could already see his thoughts churning about sending protection along with her if she had to be in attendance. “No. The only thing I need to do is let her do her thing. Once it’s sold, I’ll have to show up to sign the papers at closing.”
She couldn’t find a new place without being free of that debt. Being self-employed didn’t help, either. Without a steady paycheck, it made getting a mortgage on her own even more difficult.
In reality, the longer she stayed with Stone, the more she could save. However, that agreement with him was also a debt, just of a different nature.
“Think it’s gonna sell fast?”
Taryn sighed. “I sure hope so. The mortgage and monthly expenses are sucking the funds from my account faster than I can earn them.”
“Shit’s hangin’ around your neck.”
Like a damn albatross. “It is. And it’s dragging me down. I need to get out from under it as soon as possible.”
“It insured?”
“Of course. It’s required when you have a mortgage.”
A smile slowly crossed his sinfully handsome face.
It was both breath-taking and worrisome. “I don’t like that smile.”
He shrugged and chugged more coffee. “Insurance money would pay off your mortgage and any other debt hangin’ over your head, right?”
He sure liked to simplify complex issues. But that wasn’t always possible.
“What I would get would go toward paying off the damn mortgage, Stone. That debt doesn’t simply disappear when the house does.”
He frowned. “You owe more than the house is worth?”
“No, but since Vic had taken out a second mortgage, any of the equity we had built up disappeared.” And she also had no idea what happened to that money. Since she got the house in the divorce, she somehow got stuck with that extra debt.
The divorce attorney she picked was also on her long lists of mistakes. While she’d learned from that one, she hoped she never had to go through a divorce again.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
“I second that. But please don’t get it in your head to burn down my house or anything. I don’t need to be charged with insurance fraud.”
“For arson?”
Her eyebrows rose. “For a planned arson.”
“You ain’t no fun,” he muttered, leaning back in his chair and extending his long legs under the table until they brushed against hers.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re right. I don’t find going to jail fun. How about you?”