Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 82847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Did that include Wolfe’s Range Rover parked around the side of the house? “You’ve always been astute.”
“Yep.” He continued to eat like a fucking pig.
Leo was a decent guy and a good brother, so I should cut him some slack because he’d never done anything like this before. We all had our bad moments. “Dad’s mad at me.”
“Because you’ve been drunk for two days?”
“Says I need to eat where I shit and shit where I eat.”
“You mean not shit where you eat?”
“Something like that,” he said. “Said he doesn’t see me taking over because of it.”
“That’s a little harsh.”
“Says he wishes you were a man because you’d do a better job.”
My heart flushed with warmth, and then the guilt quickly swallowed it.
“Which is true, even though it pisses me the fuck off.” He ripped off a chunk of meat from the bone with his teeth and chewed it, juice collecting in the corners of his mouth. “You’re smarter. You always have been. You think before you speak. Dad respects you in a way he doesn’t respect me.”
“I don’t think that’s true, Leo.”
He released a mocking noise before he continued to eat.
“I think he just expects more out of you.”
“Because I’m less.”
“No, because he knows you can be more than I can.”
He finished his plate, leaving behind a pile of bones in a pool of sauce. He grabbed the linen napkin off the table and finally wiped himself up.
“Make sure you drink some water. You’re probably dehydrated.”
He reached for the glass and downed it quickly just to get it over with. “Cool if I sleep on the couch?”
“Sure.” I didn’t try to hide my disappointment because he wouldn’t pick up on it anyway. If Leo stayed, that meant Wolfe would have to leave, and since I spent more of my nights with him in my bed than without, it was weird when he wasn’t there. It felt like a piece of me was missing, and I wouldn’t feel whole until he returned. The relationship had been brief, but he’d somehow already become an integral part of me—even when he pissed me off.
Leo left his plate there and stumbled over to the couch in the living room, where Wolfe and I had just fucked a couple hours ago. He kicked off his shoes, lay down, and pretty much knocked out on the spot.
I pulled a blanket over him, got him a couple glasses of water and a bottle of pills if he needed something when he woke up.
I walked up the stairs and saw Wolfe standing at the top, still shirtless in his sweatpants. He seemed to have put the gun away.
We went back into my bedroom and shut the door.
I couldn’t hide my disappointment.
His eyes shifted back and forth between mine like he understood what would come next. “You want me to leave.”
“The only reason he didn’t notice your Range Rover is because it’s dark.”
“And because he’s drunk.”
“Well, yeah. That too.”
He breathed a deep breath. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.”
“Maybe we should start staying at your place. That way, there won’t be any interruptions.”
“I do like the sound of that,” he said. “But I’m also getting tired of the charade.” He stared me down, asking a question he didn’t speak aloud. “Tired of having to hide the most important relationship of my life.”
I swallowed. “I—I just don’t think it’s the right time.”
“When is the right time, baby?”
“I—I’m not sure,” I said as I averted my eyes. “I just know my father will be furious and it’ll be bad.”
“I’m not scared of him.”
“Well, I am,” I said quickly.
“I know a lot of guys love the whole sneaking around bit, fucking their brother’s wife or their best friend’s girl, whatever it may be. But I’m not into that. I don’t hide who I am from anybody, and if someone doesn’t like something about me, too fucking bad. This is the longest secret I’ve ever had to keep, and I know we’re both in this for the long haul. It’s not a hookup that’ll run its course. Every time I’m with you, I just want you more and more—never less. And after what happened earlier today, it’s pretty fucking obvious that you’re just as hung up on me as I am on you. So I don’t want to tiptoe down the stairs and sneak around your brother like I don’t belong here. You’re my woman—so damn straight I belong here.” He made a fist and thumped it against his chest. “You’re mine, and I’m yours.”
“Wolfe, I understand how you feel—”
“I’ll give you some time to figure out how you want to do it, but test my patience for too long, and I’ll snap. I’ll walk right up to him and tell him point-blank—and he’s welcome to shoot me if he wants. Nothing I haven’t survived before.”