Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
“Gem.” He just stared down at her.
“What?”
“You need a real fucking pool.”
“That’s not in the budget and, anyway, I can stick my feet in the water. I was thinking about planting some flowers out here, though. Don’t you think that would look nice?”
“Yeah, guess it would.”
“Don’t know much about flowers, but how hard can it be to plant and water them?”
Renard didn’t want to tell her that it probably took a bit more knowledge than that to make plants grow. He also didn’t want to point out that the paddling pool kind of looked ridiculous.
Because he thought he was finally starting to understand why she was making all these changes to a house she didn’t own.
It was because she felt at home here.
She was making it her home.
“You’ve never planted flowers before, Gem?”
“I never lived in a house like this,” she told him as he grabbed the sunscreen. She might have applied it an hour ago, but he was having trouble believing that she’d done it as thoroughly as he would like.
So he poured some out and rubbed it onto her legs. If she was gonna be sunbathing like this, she really should be on her porch. Or she needed a gazebo, something to keep her safe from the sun.
And the pool should be bigger. Something she could swim in.
Plus, this backyard could use some bigger plants and a fence to keep kids out of the pool. In fact, the entire house could use a repaint.
“No?”
“No. Just apartments. And there was never any money to make those apartments feel like a home, you know? Any spare money that I got had to go toward food and clothes. It feels nice to be able to spend money on flowers, even though a part of me thinks it’s frivolous and dumb. It is, isn’t it?”
“Anything that makes you happy isn’t dumb, Gem.”
He watched as her body melted, a wide smile filling her face. He slid his hand up her thighs.
Fuck.
“You’re so sweet.”
Yeah, the thoughts he was having right now weren’t sweet. He was wondering how he could get away with settling his head between her thighs and eating her out until she came.
Probably not something he could do out here.
“That bikini looks good on you, Gem.”
“Thanks.”
“Not sure I like you wearing it without me, though.” He moved to putting sunscreen on her stomach.
“Why not?” she asked as he ran his hands over the tops of her breasts. They were nearly spilling out of the bikini.
“Because anyone who sees you in this isn’t gonna be able to look away. And then I’ll have to pull their eyeballs from their sockets for staring at my girl.”
“Savage,” she whispered.
“You don’t like savage, Gem?”
“Oh no,” she replied. “The weird thing is that I love savage.”
He lifted her up and then sat on the sun lounger with her on his lap, facing him, her legs spread wide.
“Good. Because you seem to bring out the possessive, protective beast in me.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” she murmured as she kissed him. Hot and heavy.
Hard.
She leaned back. “I got a call today.”
“Yeah, who from?” he asked.
“Merc James. He works for Curt. He wanted to arrange a time next week to come in and look at my place for the security system I’m getting installed.”
“That so?”
“Yeah, it is. But when I talked to Alec, he knew nothing about it.”
“Explains the three missed calls from him on my phone,” he muttered.
“Renard!”
“Yep?”
“I thought we agreed no security system. I don’t need it.”
“Never agreed that, Gem. And you do need it.”
“Didn’t you say it was Alec’s responsibility?” she asked.
“That was before I became your guardian. About time Curt got around to getting it set up.”
“I don’t need it! I live in suburbia with a chain on the door as well as a deadlock.”
“You need cameras and an alarm. And Malone was slacking by not putting those in.”
Something he’d make him aware of. When he answered one of his calls.
“It’s way too expensive,” she protested.
He shot her a look. “You’re my woman. My responsibility. You’re getting it. No arguments.”
“Hey, Opal, are you back—oh, uh, sorry.”
What the fuck? Who was this guy? Renard glared up at the guy standing there awkwardly. He was younger than Renard with a bit of a belly and stooped shoulders.
Renard vaguely remembered seeing him before and guessed he was a neighbor. But that did not mean he liked him coming into his girl’s backyard while she was dressed in a hot bikini and he was making out with her.
“Barney! Hey!” Opal tried to tug out of Renard’s hold, but he simply held her tighter.
“Hey, Opal. Uh, sorry for interrupting.” He shuffled his feet but didn’t leave.
“Did you need something?” Opal asked.
“Yeah, did you have any milk?” he asked.
“You can’t go to the store and get milk?” Renard asked.
“Renard,” she warned, glaring at him.