Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Wow.
His grandmother sounded awesome.
“She does sound like a great gran,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “So when she started losing it, and how fast she declined, what my professor said stuck.”
“I can imagine,” I murmured, pressing closer to him because, regrettably, though unknowingly, I’d led him into sharing yet another unfun story.
“So since then, even if this obviously didn’t work for her, just in case, I make myself watch TV, read books or hit movies I normally wouldn’t be into,” he shared. “And try food I think I might not like. Or I do shit I wouldn’t normally do. Anything to keep my brain engaged, challenged, learning something new, experiencing something different. I got on a jag of reading shit like Dickens and Austen, which led me to read some history books about England, the politics, the aristocracy, the class structure. And I watched some documentaries about all of that too. So that’s where it came from. Though, I only saw pictures of that stuff, I didn’t get into any culinary history.”
Although I thoroughly enjoyed learning this about him, and I thought it was super cool he did this stuff, I really had no other response other than, “Oh.”
“Thinking about it, it makes sense. A narrow mind leads to a closed mind, and I can see that might even happen neurologically,” Gabe continued.
It was also super cool my guy was so smart.
“You’re right, it does make sense,” I replied.
There was humor in his deep voice when he asked, “That answer your question?”
“Yes.”
He pulled me closer, and his voice dipped lower, “I know you wanna know, baby, and you don’t want to take me there, but so you have the full story, it was a relief when Gran passed. I hate it that it was, but she went downhill so fast, it not lasting long was a good thing.”
Ugh.
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too, but at least she isn’t suffering, and everyone else doesn’t have to watch her do it.”
“Yeah, at least,” I mumbled.
He ran the tip of his nose along the bridge of mine (gah! could he get more awesome?) and whispered, “It’s life, baby.”
“I’m just upset I brought it up when we should still be mellow after great sex.”
“Sharing with you doesn’t make me less mellow, cupcake,” he replied. “It’s fuckin’ awesome you wanna know about me.”
Uh-oh.
Gabe felt my abrupt shift in mood, so he said firmly, “Babe, she’s gone.”
“So I take it Ariana didn’t ask much about you either.”
“She’s gone.”
She didn’t ask much.
That bitch.
“Did your Gran die—?”
He cut me off to confirm my not-fully-asked question. “Yes, right before I got together with her.”
“So this was also after—?”
He interrupted me again before I could say “Denise.”
“Yeah.”
Oh.
My.
God.
Ariana was such a bitch.
“So you get to hunt down Christian and hand him his ass, verbally only, of course, and I can’t be pissed as shit about Ariana?” I demanded.
“There are no words to express how little she’s worth your emotion,” he stated unequivocally.
And that unequivocally was seriously unequivocable.
Oh.
Well then.
He rolled to his back and tucked me to his side, ordering, “Shake it off and go to sleep.”
“Our deal is, you’re only allowed to be bossy on certain occasions, Gabriel Stark,” I reminded him.
He sighed.
Then he rolled into me again.
About forty-five minutes later, after Gabe exerted some effort into showing me one of the occasions it was good he was bossy, I was a human noodle, and he was rejoining me in bed after cleanup part two.
“Sleep,” he grunted.
“Awright,” I mumbled, so sexed out, I was unable to fully enunciate.
Gabe chuckled.
I fell asleep.
TWENTY
JOB DESCRIPTION
The next morning, I woke with Gabe’s hand on my belly.
And him calling, “Baby, time to hit it.”
I opened my eyes.
He was standing beside the bed.
I was groggy.
Though, I wasn’t so groggy I didn’t comprehend that I preferred that face, beard, body, and the man they all belonged to in my bed, not standing beside it.
He was grinning massively.
“Whad dime iz id?” I mumbled.
I wouldn’t think his grin could get bigger, but it did when I mumbled that.
He then said, “It’s five to four.”
What human in their right mind would be standing beside a bed, awake and alert at five to four, and do this smiling massively?
Concerned I’d woken up in an episode of Black Mirror, I pushed up on my elbows and shoved the sleep from my brain (well, most of it, again, it was five to four).
“Why are you grinning?” I asked.
“Look at you.”
I gazed down at myself.
We slept in the nude (though, Gabe had his boxer briefs on now).
I wasn’t a nude sleeper.
I had no issue being that with Gabe.
But the covers were up over my breasts, and other than that, it was just my body in my bed hitting my eyes.
I turned back to look up at him, bewildered.
“You’re on your back,” he stated.
“And?” I pushed.
“I woke up with you sprawled beside me, taking up most of the bed.”