Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
After Teddy closed herself into the bathroom, I unbuttoned the top couple of buttons on my jeans and sat down on the bed to wait. I peeled off my socks and tossed them toward the dirty clothes pile in the corner of the room that was starting to get out of control.
I needed to do laundry. I also needed to get started on the yard, since I’d told Tommy I would. Teddy and Jesse had been cooking most of our meals if we didn’t order in and cleaning up the kitchen afterward, so I should probably do the bathrooms. It was only fair. I wondered what cleaning products Kara had stocked us up with and where she’d stored them. Tomorrow, I’d pull them out and pitch in. Dylan could do some chores too.
The bathroom door opened, and I raised my head, the thoughts I’d been using to distract myself completely disappearing.
Teddy was wearing a pair of shorts and a loose tank top, her hair piled high on her head.
She may as well have been wearing lingerie with the way I instantly hardened.
“Uh, all yours,” she rasped, clearing her throat afterward.
I nodded, not trusting my voice. When I rose to my feet, she cursed.
“Seriously?” she asked with a laugh of disbelief.
I froze. “What?”
“Who looks like that?” she asked, frowning. “With the muscles and the tattoos and the buttons?”
“Buttons?” I asked in confusion.
“Oh, you did that on purpose,” she shot back, her lips twitching. She shimmied. “Just a couple undone. Not too many. Leave a little to the imagination.”
I looked down at my jeans and let out a bark of laughter. “Baby, we ate a lot of food tonight and followed that up with beer. They’re unbuttoned because I had to take my socks off, and I didn’t wanna get cut in half.”
Her expression moved from knowing amusement to surprise before she burst out laughing.
“But thanks,” I said, drawing out the word. “Didn’t know unbuttonin’ my jeans to make room for my gut was a turn-on.”
“To be fair,” she wheezed. “When you look like that, I don’t think it would take much to seduce someone.”
I grinned as I moved toward her, catching her by the arm as she tried to step past me.
“How drunk are you?” I asked, searching her face.
“Not at all,” she replied with a surprised shake of her head. “I only had three beers in the last ten hours. Why?”
“Because when I kiss you, I wanna know you’re sober when you kiss me back,” I murmured.
“You say that like you haven’t been kissing me all day,” she replied softly, tipping her head back.
“Nobody’s watching us now.”
Chapter 10
Teddy
Curtis softly ran his fingers along my jawline and down the side of my neck, then disappeared into the bathroom.
My knees felt like Jell-O as I walked to the bed, dropping onto it as I reached for the cuff on my wrist. He’d said he was going to kiss me and then hadn’t. What the fuck?
If it was some kind of tactic to get my heart racing, he’d succeeded. I could feel it beating at the base of my throat as I waited for him to come back out.
We’d had a good night—one of the best that I could remember. The kids had made friends and hung out with people their ages, we’d filled up on good food, and Curtis had been by my side the entire time, ensuring that I was enjoying myself. Sitting on his lap had been nicer than I’d ever admit, but doing it while he laughed? There were times when I’d thought I could sit there forever and be happy.
But it wasn’t forever. It was for now. All of it was fake. His hand on the base of my spine as we walked around, his arm around my shoulders, his lips against my neck, his kisses—all of it was a show he was putting on. One I’d agreed to. He’d been asked to play a part, and he’d come through with flying colors.
I wasn’t naïve. I knew that those lines could blur. It was impossible to act physically affectionate with someone you felt an attraction to for hours and not start catching feelings—whether that was lust or something else.
Was I willing to let it go further than that?
My tight nipples and the ache between my thighs said yes.
Shit.
I hadn’t been with anyone in longer than I wanted to admit. Years. There just hadn’t been time when my pop started getting really sick. I’d been too focused on taking care of the kids, working, and keeping him alive as long as I could. There had been full years during that time when I hadn’t even thought about sex.
I was thinking about it now.
The fallout would be minimal. I knew that. I couldn’t use the kids as an excuse because, as far as they knew, Curtis and I were already together. The end was already coming for them, even if they didn’t know it yet. I only had myself to worry about. Could I take what he was offering and come out the other side unscathed? We had a good thing going. Even though we’d moved into the house as strangers, we’d somehow found a way to coexist that was working for everyone.