Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
I hated him. Dumbass piece of shit. He had to have known. Guys weren’t blind to a girl’s feelings about them. If I ever got a whiff, I ran like hell the other way. Fucker knew and asked her to help him? He needed to be throat-punched.
“Seems intelligence skipped him on that side of the family. Much like his mother.”
Her eyes widened.
I closed the rest of the distance between us and slid a knuckle under her chin to tilt her head back. “I want to be your friend. That’s all I’m good for really. But I also want to get my mouth between your legs again. It blurs the lines, and I know that. I don’t want to hurt you or make you think we are something more. So, I’m asking you now, can our friendship survive us adding sexual things? Me sleeping in this bed because, baby, you have nightmares. Or you did last night. After witnessing it, I don’t think I can sleep, worrying about you going through that shit alone.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed.
“I didn’t realize. I thought I hadn’t had one last night. I don’t remember it. I normally wake up.”
Fuck. She had been having them all along.
“I calmed you down, and you settled,” I told her.
“Thank you.” Her words were no more than a whisper.
“No need to thank me. But even if the sexual stuff is off the table, let me stay with you at night until they stop.”
She blinked. Silence. I was ready to beg for the sexual stuff, but I managed to let her work it out in her head without pushing.
“Okay,” she finally said.
“Okay to what exactly?” I needed clarification.
“To all of it.”
Relief exploded in my chest, and I almost grabbed her and hauled her to the bed. But the ringing of my phone stopped me from it.
Jerking it out of my pocket, I saw Lula Mae’s name. Shit. I’d forgotten about her. I wasn’t done with that job yet. Where was Locke?!
Looking back at Elsie, I winked. “That’s the best damn news I’ve had in a long time.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she smiled so sweetly that my cock reminded me exactly what he wanted and who.
Down, boy. Not yet. But soon.
Thirty-Four
Elsie
Agreeing to “all of it” and then having to watch Forge leave my room to go back to the Louisiana princess was disappointing. But he had called her a chore, and I was choosing to believe him. Besides, we were friends. He’d made that clear. He’d also made it clear he wanted to do sexual things with me. Not sex. At least, I didn’t think he’d meant that. I couldn’t say I’d be against it if I wasn’t so terrified of his size and piercings.
I’d had some time to think about all of it and mentally coach myself for the evening. I read a little more of Noa’s book to get me more prepared for the “things” Forge wanted to do. I felt like it was an instruction manual of sorts, although I’d never admit that to a soul. And I would avoid Ransom for the rest of my life. I felt as if I had seen him naked.
With all the other taking priority in my thoughts, I hadn’t taken the time to write Calvin back. But I would tomorrow. My focus was elsewhere tonight. Besides, it wasn’t like I had much I could tell him. I was pretty sure that explaining that his cousin and I had decided to be friends with benefits wasn’t going to go over well with him.
That was something he never had to know.
There weren’t as many voices coming from the great room this evening as the last game night that I’d helped with. In fact, all I heard was the announcers on the television. Where was everyone?
Passing the kitchen, I glanced inside to see it was clean and empty. The light was off.
When I reached the great room, the only person in there was Forge, and he was sitting on the edge of the sofa with the coffee table moved closer to him. Tonight he had two laptops and an iPad placed in the middle. He was busy looking at something on the screen, and it gave me a moment to appreciate the view. Thinking about that man in my bed again tonight, doing those things we’d done last night, sent a rush of warmth between my legs.
He glanced back at me, and a slow grin spread across his face. “You gonna come sit, Pickles? Or stare at me?”
Crap. He’d known I was here.
“I didn’t want to interrupt you,” I lied.
“Sure. That was it,” he drawled. “Come sit. I’ve ordered food for us. Everyone else is out—at least for now. They’ll all return eventually.”
We were alone in this house? Had it ever been this empty?