Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35305 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
"I wanted to be closer to Lucy," I mutter defensively. It's true. I got tired of my older sister being half a continent away. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life hopping on a plane just for sister time or to see my nieces. Both of my brothers are in the military, so I never see them.
"Maybe that was part of it, but we both know you never opened this place back home because you were worried that it'd be shut down as soon as someone got a wild hair up their ass about the kind of books you sell."
She's right, dammit. I was a librarian back in Nashville, and every other week, someone from one church or another was trying to get me fired for daring to stock books they disagreed with. The only reason they never succeeded was because the city was too afraid to face my dad's wrath. When you're one of the richest men in the state, you get to call the shots. He kept my job safe when many other librarians were losing theirs.
But I didn't want to have to rely on him to keep me in a job, so Jazz and I packed up and moved to Santa Maria. I don't regret the choice because owning my own bookstore has always been my dream, but I do feel a little like I let the perpetually offended and the Ban the Books crowd win.
They're probably celebrating my move with a new librarian willing to kowtow to their insane demands.
"We should do it," I blurt before I can talk myself out of it. Jazz is right. I didn't move here and open this place just to play it safe. That would be letting the Ban the Books crowd win, and I'm not about that life. So why not sell sex toys? If we need a license, I'll just apply for it. It can't be that hard.
"Really?" Jazz stares at me like she's waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Yes, really." I laugh, tossing a piece of crinkled Kraft paper at her. "Let's do it."
"Yes!" she cries, shaking her ass right there at the counter. "We're selling sex toys!"
Sarah decides to join her in her impromptu victory dance, both of them chanting, "Sex toys! Sex toys!" as they shimmy and shake their asses.
About the time Jazz pulls me to my feet and starts trying to twerk on me—try being the operative word here—the bell over the front door dings.
I'm mid booty shake when I glance up, right into the greenest eyes I've ever seen in my life. Laughter dies on my lips, and I stumble to a stop. Sweet Jesus and all his saints. The man is gorgeous. My heart skips a beat, and my damn hands actually get clammy as I look him over.
Those green eyes are paired with full lips and the sharpest jawline I've ever seen. Locks of dark hair fall across his forehead, too unruly to be tamed despite how put-together the rest of him is. His tailored three-piece suit fits his muscular frame a little too well.
I'm not sure how he stumbled into my store, but if he's buying books for himself, I might die. And if he's buying them for someone else, jealousy may eat me alive because I would absolutely allow him to star in my fantasies.
Smut, who? Give me this man in nothing but a smirk and a tie.
"Welcome to Book of Love," I call, internally cringing when my voice comes out sounding like I'm doing an impression of a sex-line operator. I smooth my hands down my body…like that's really going to change the fact that I'm in a t-shirt that says, "Got smut?" and jeans with a hole in the knee while my best friend twerks on me.
Jasmine and Sarah realize at the exact same moment that there's someone else watching their little dance routine. Jazz just tosses her hair and saunters behind the counter like it doesn't matter to her. But Sarah squeaks, practically diving for cover. Books, she can do. Hot men? Not so much. She's an anxious little bookworm, through and through.
I hurry across the store to help the hunk in the suit. Whoever spots the man-candy first gets to help the man-candy. It's an unspoken rule around here. Sarah refuses to play, but it keeps me, Jazz, and Sarah's best friend, Olive, entertained. Lucy and Loralei, the town librarian, even play along when they're here. Although…Oliver gets cranky when Lucy plays along and goes all caveman on her. Honestly, that's probably why she does it.
Either way, I love free labor and this game.
I'm halfway across the store to the man before I realize just how tall he is. Unlike every other woman in my family, I got my dad's height. Even though I'm five-nine, this man still towers over me like Goliath, only hotter.