Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Rome pulled away, ending the kiss. My eyes opened slowly as my brain proved sluggish coming back online. Rome lifted his hand to my cheek and rubbed his thumb along the edge of my bottom lip, sending all these tingles through my body.
“My scene? Having fun and making my partner feel good.”
“Yeah.” I exhaled. I could totally believe that about him.
He suddenly sat up, returning his hand to his lap. “I’ve got an idea.”
“That’s scary,” I muttered out of habit.
“Let’s have a sleepover.”
“What?” That was like being splashed with cold water when I was still floating in a warm sea of bliss. I jerked upright, my brain shooting into panic mode. What would happen if Rome and I slept together? Did he mean for us to have sex? The second kiss was a lot better than the first, and I had a feeling that they were going to progress in that direction quickly, but did I want that? Was I ready for sex?
“Hey!” Rome snapped. “Get your mind out of the gutter!” He reached over and smacked me in the center of my forehead, jolting me from my dark and somewhat filthy thoughts. “I meant sleepover like we did as kids. Sleeping bags, junk food, and video games all night. Not falling asleep until dawn. No sex. No touching. At most, maybe some more kissing.”
“Oh.” I stared wide-eyed at him. Wow. I had not been expecting him to suggest that.
“I thought we could talk more. It would be easier if I was on hand to answer any more questions and stop you from panicking. Plus, you have a giant video-game collection, and we haven’t made a dent in it yet.”
Stopping me from falling into another swirling panic would be a good thing. There would be things I’d want to ask him later too. Right now, everything was overwhelming. I hadn’t even dealt with the brainwashing of self-hate I’d gone through with my mother.
“Only problem is that I don’t own any sleeping bags,” I said.
Rome nodded. “That’s fine. You can sleep in your bed, and I’ll crash on the couch.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, it’ll be fine. You got any more junk food?”
I snorted. “I’ve got a loaf of french bread in the pantry. We can make french-bread pizza with the leftover sauce and toppings.”
We killed the rest of the wine. Opened a second bottle and killed that. Ate french-bread pizza and the last of the mint chocolate chip ice cream. Played a ridiculous amount of video games.
And in the end, we dragged the mattress off my bed and into the living room when we were finally ready to pass out while talking about life.
Hands down, it was one of the best nights of my life. Also, one of the scariest.
17
ROME ASHBRIDGE
As the first rays of sunlight stretched through the front window, I woke utterly confused about where I was and why I was there.
But a soft snore next to me jerked my attention to my left, where I discovered messy red hair against a dark blue pillow and Liam’s handsome face relaxed in sleep.
In a flash, it all came back.
The truth about what had happened that day.
His mother.
All the doubts, hurt, and questions.
The kiss.
All the kisses.
My God, kissing Liam was like tasting heaven.
We hadn’t kissed too many more times after we’d finished talking and raided the kitchen. All of them had been soft and tentative, as if Liam kept pushing himself to check that what he was feeling wasn’t some fluke.
The frustrating part was that Liam pulled away each time the kiss got a little hungry and desperate. I didn’t know if he was afraid of me trying to take it too far or if he didn’t trust himself.
I was content to let him move at his pace.
Okay, mentally, I was prepared. Physically, my dick was arguing to show him how much fun sex with a guy could be.
After making french-bread pizza, killing the last of the wine, and playing more video games, we’d moved furniture so we could drag his heavy-ass mattress into the living room like a pair of insane miscreants. We’d fallen asleep after three in the morning, still talking. He’d told me some crazy stories about his parents and the constant restrictions he’d been under while growing up. He didn’t talk too much about his ex-wife, but it felt like that part of things was stewing in the back of his mind. I wondered if maybe he’d married Fiona to get his mom off his case, which would have sucked for him and his ex.
But in the early, quiet hours, I could roll onto my side and watch him at my leisure. The only sounds in the house were the steady hum of the heater pumping warm air throughout the town house and Liam’s soft snoring. He’d found a pretty two-story town house to rent that was great until we’d had to maneuver a queen-sized mattress down the stairs. I was not looking forward to returning it to the second-floor master bedroom. All the rooms were painted bright primary colors and filled with stained dark wood. The most decorated spots were the living room and kitchen. Unopened boxes filled the rest of the rooms.