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)
“I’ll see that Daniel gets safely home,” I cut in, turning the enormous dinosaur to the door.
We hurried through the hall, the material of the suit making a loud rubbing noise with his every step. Behind him, his tail wagged back and forth. Liam climbed into the elevator first, and I fought to get both his head and tail inside. By the time the silver doors shut, we were giggling like lunatics.
“Holy shit! How do I get you out of this thing?” I cried as I slapped the button for the first floor before anyone else could attempt to join us in here.
Our hands knocked together a few times as Liam turned off the fan and unzipped it along the belly. When he stuck his head out, his face was flushed and his hair was an absolute mess, but no one had ever looked better to me in my entire life.
“What are you doing here?”
He flashed me a crooked grin. “You helped me with my job at the museum by bringing all those kids for a tour. I thought it was only fair that I returned the favor with yours.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Crazy in love with you. Would you be willing to date a guy who has a weird obsession with dinosaurs?”
“God yes,” I moaned as I grabbed his face and pulled him in for a hard kiss that washed away all my stupid doubts and worries. Liam was here in a dinosaur suit because he fucking loved me. What the hell did I need? Not a damn thing.
Cheering and laughter broke up our kiss. We turned our heads to find that the elevator doors had opened, and all the rest of my coworkers were standing on the other side with their phones raised as they took pictures and video.
“I take it you had some assistance,” I drawled, bumping the tip of my nose against Liam’s.
“Just a little. It’s not like they were going to let a dinosaur stroll through their library looking for a friend.”
“All right, everyone. We’ve disturbed our patrons enough,” Janice announced in a quiet but firm voice. In an instant, all the other librarians scattered. “Rome, take your dinosaur home.”
That sounded like an excellent idea.
An hour later, I was cuddled on Liam’s sofa with him—without the dinosaur suit—and boxes of half-eaten Chinese takeout on the coffee table. We had defrosted from the cold and filled our bellies. Not that long ago, I’d wanted to show Liam all the city’s holiday goodness, but now that I had him in my arms, I didn’t want to move from this spot ever.
“This is probably the part where we should have our talk,” Liam announced suddenly.
I whined and tightened my arms around him. “Can we not?”
He chuckled into my shoulder. “It’ll be short.”
“Promise?”
“Yes,” he said, even as he pushed on my chest to put some space between us. He was still smiling at me, so I tried to take that as a good sign. “I want you to know that I didn’t freak out about being attracted to a man or the gay sex. I’m sure there might be times in the future where you have to talk me down from some crazy panic or have to hold my hand when I have to deal with haters, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m okay with my sexuality.”
I grabbed his hand and pressed kisses to the knuckles. “I’m glad, and don’t worry. I’ll hold your hand through anything and tell you how amazing you are every fucking day.”
“What kind of freaked me out was your money,” he admitted, which struck me as strange and yet wasn’t entirely unexpected. “As kids, it wasn’t a big deal. I knew your family had money, but you didn’t brag about being rich or flash a bunch of new shit. We felt equal most of the time.”
My stomach twisted. “Do I make you feel less—”
“No! No. No. No,” he countered quickly, waving his hands at me. “No! Never! I think what surprised me was that people could suddenly use me to get to your money. They could take advantage of me and hurt you. I never want to do something that could hurt you. It got me thinking about other things. I was scared because you don’t have bodyguards or a lot of people close to you to protect you from the assholes of the world. I panicked because I don’t know how best to keep you safe. It might have also crossed my mind that I’m not good enough for you.”
“Bullshit,” I snarled. Grabbing Liam’s arm, I pulled him back against my chest, wrapping my arms tightly around him. “I appreciate you worrying about me, but you are the only person I want at my side. You’re perfect for me. You get my stupid sense of humor, and you aren’t easily insulted by the ridiculous things that pop out of my mouth.”