Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
He came back from the bathroom, turned out the bedside light (the only one we bothered—or I should say he bothered, he had me otherwise occupied—to switch on) and slid in bed beside me.
Guessed that meant he was spending the night.
I wanted that…so much.
But I was wondering at the intelligence of it…a lot.
I mean, there were huge things riding on this: crucial friendships, functional teams, stuff like that.
Shit.
He pulled me into his warm, big, hard body at the same time he smoothed a hand down my back, a cheek of my ass, the back of a thigh and hooked that leg over his hip.
Hmm.
Comfy.
“So, that was great,” I pointed out the obvious.
He chuckled. It was low, deep, delightful.
“Yeah, baby, that was great,” he agreed, humor still in his tone (also delightful).
“But, um…” I pressed my hands to his chest. “I think we need to discuss how smart it was.”
His arms were around me, and they convulsed…hard.
“You don’t think it was smart?” he asked, his tone now wary, and I instantly missed the humor.
“I don’t know. Do you think it was smart?”
“I think it was fuckin’ fantastic.”
“Well, yeah. We established that.”
“And you make me laugh.”
I’d noticed he’d done a lot of that at Mom and Dad’s house all day. And I thought it was awesome that he seemed so chill and in his element there.
“I’m funny,” I noted with zero humility because…what was the point? I could be a laugh riot. I knew this about me.
He gave me another squeeze, this one just wasn’t as intense. “You are, baby.”
“But life is full of thrills and chills and giggles,” I noted.
“Maybe your life,” he muttered.
Oh boy.
I slid my hands up his crisp chest hair so I could wrap them around the sides of his neck.
“Something going down?” I asked.
“You don’t know me very well.”
This was indeed true. I’d only known him a few months.
I wasn’t sure I was overjoyed he pointed that out after I let him fuck me, though.
“We’ll be rectifying that,” he went on.
I relaxed and smiled in the dark.
“I don’t know you very well either, and we’ll be rectifying that too,” he continued. “But one thing to know about me, my life has not been shits and grins. I was at your parents’ Thanksgiving table because my family is a disaster. Got two brothers and a dad I don’t respect, don’t even like, to the point I wrestle with the fact I actually hate them, and I will never again spend a second of my time with them unless it’s to attend their funeral.”
We’d suddenly gotten very deep.
And shocker.
I was not at all scared of it.
Oh no.
I was there for it.
I was there for how easily he gave me that. I didn’t like what he said, but I liked that he trusted me with it. That he was open about it. That it indicated this wasn’t going to be about games and parceling out information and tests.
“So, what you’re saying is, there wasn’t a lot of laughter,” I surmised.
“Best thing I ever did was go into the army. Best thing that ever happened to me was being in the army. My life right now couldn’t be any more different than it was the whole time I was growing up. The whole entire time, Luna.”
I was still there for the honesty.
I just hated what he was saying.
I pressed closer and whispered, “Baby.”
“Yeah, it sucked,” he agreed matter-of-factly. “So, I can say that a beautiful woman with curly hair and dancing eyes and fierce friendships, who’s funny as all fuck…no. This is not a mistake. This isn’t a one-off. This is happening.”
I waited for him to ask me if I was on board with that, but he didn’t.
Which was when I started laughing.
“What’s funny?” he asked, sounding mildly miffed and all kinds of cute.
“You’re lucky I agree with you,” I did not lie. “But my decision is based mostly on the fact you really know what to do with your dick,” I lied.
That was when he busted out laughing.
He also rolled into me.
Oh yeah.
“Ready for seconds?” he asked.
“It is Thanksgiving,” I remarked.
I felt him smile against my mouth.
Then he gave me seconds.
My alarm went off, playing “Leia’s Theme” from Star Wars.
But I was already awake, and had been for a while, lying in bed, arms curled around a special secret I kept under my pillow, my face stuffed in it, stuck in my thoughts.
Or in my memories.
Beautiful memories.
That was one of only two nights we spent in my bed (the morning after the second night, intel about Jessie’s missing brother came in, everyone showed at mine, and luckily, he’d had plans to do brunch and go to the shooting range with Cap, and the news was so big, and it came in late morning, no one paid a lot of attention to the fact Knox was there with me, but we decided from there it was his place only…until we came out).