Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“C’mere, Lolita,” he called.
With no hesitation, I rounded the island and went there.
He curved one arm around my waist and tucked one hand around the side of my neck.
“It sounds fucked, but I thought I was doing right by you, spewing that shit I said,” he told me.
I didn’t have to confirm he did not at all do right by me, he already knew it.
“The thing is, this is happening,” he carried on.
Oh yes, it was.
I nodded avidly.
His eyes warmed, but he warned, “And you’re gonna meet my mom.”
“I’m not judgy,” I stated immediately. “There are all kinds of health issues, including mental ones. I get that. And you shared how she is now, so I won’t be surprised.”
“And I’m gonna meet your mom.”
I shut my mouth with a clack.
“Yeah,” he whispered, his eyes dropping to my lips.
Visions of my mother being judgy (and she totally would be, so would Easton) about Javi danced malevolently in my head.
Worse, visions of my mother being judgy about me (and she totally would be, again, so would Easton), and how Javi would react to that scared the absolute dickens out of me.
“So that’s the heavy,” Javi bottom lined it.
“You’re not going to like my mom, Javi,” I warned.
“I’m already sensing that.”
“But I’m not that pretty rich girl.”
“Wrong.”
“I’m not.”
“Babe, you are.”
“I—”
He curled his whole big hand over my mouth.
“You’re that pretty rich girl,” he stated. “You just are. You can’t escape it. But you’re also the girl who gets excited about a fifteen-dollar glass mushroom like I gave her a Tiffany’s diamond.”
I nodded enthusiastically to confirm this, taking his hand with me.
He smiled and took his hand away.
“I’m not like them,” I shared.
“I knew that before I shot my mouth off, babe, I was just searching for shit to set you against me. Definitely knew it after giving you that mushroom.”
I would treasure that mushroom until my dying day.
“Our pizza is getting cold,” I informed him.
“You gonna sleep beside me in my bed without giving me any lip?” he asked, and a surprised giggle erupted out of me.
“Are you going to use your tragic growing up years to get things you want out of me?” I teased.
He pulled me closer and dipped his face to mine. “Every chance I get.”
Another giggle slipped out of me.
“Has to be worth something,” he said through a grin.
He’d gutted me, totally and absolutely, with the little he gave me of his life story.
But since he was grinning, I was going to go with it.
“Totally,” I agreed.
His grin faded. “So, you gonna sleep beside me?”
I took in a breath before I gave in and nodded again.
“Good, baby,” he murmured, warmth and relief and a smidge of smug victory (I’d give him that last because of the first two) glowing in his golden eyes.
He dipped even further, pressed a hard kiss on my mouth, lifted nary an inch, and said, “Now, let’s eat.”
I pushed up, negating that nary an inch, and pressed my own hard kiss to his lips.
And then we ate.
FIFTEEN
“NO ORDINARY LOVE”
(SADE)
The next morning, my eyes opened, and I saw gray sheets, beyond which there was Javi’s handsome face, turned my way, asleep on the pillow beside mine.
I didn’t move as I gazed at his extreme male beauty right there, so close.
All mine.
Freaked because I was sleeping too soundly…
His words crashed into me, and I wanted to touch him. I wanted to hold him. I wanted to erase everything he’d had to live through and make it all sunshine. Make it so he felt safe to sleep deeply. Make it so he understood he’d made it to the other side and none of that would ever touch him again.
I also wanted to find his dad and punch him in the throat.
Okay, no, I wasn’t violent.
So I wanted to find his dad and say a few choice words (or more than a few).
But in the now, what I wanted was to let Javi sleep.
I’d noticed that Jessie and Shanti had packed my journal and the purple pen I used to write in it, and even though that was all I had available to me of my morning ritual, I decided to hit it so I could let out some of the emotion I had surrounding all that had happened and all Javi had shared with me.
I could probably do some yoga or Pilates exercises, but I didn’t want Javi to wake up and catch me doing it. I’d been practicing both for years, but I still knew I looked like a dork doing it. It was way too early in our relationship for him to see that.
Therefore, I took pains to slip out of the bed so I wouldn’t wake Javi. I hit the bathroom, did my thing, and when I came out, I moved right to my suitcases opened on the floor.