Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 109086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“Is it hot in here?” I exclaimed, reaching for my coffee and gulping down a good mouthful. I swallowed it.
His eyes fell to it, his eyebrows furrowing a little. He had that dry grin tugging at his mouth again.
It took a second before I saw the steam coming from my coffee, and I was back to almost hyperventilating. I started to shove out of the booth. “I need to walk.”
He reached over, caught my wrist. He held me in place. “Stay.”
I groaned, but my ass didn’t move. “She asked me to leave. I did. I went to the other side of the street. That’s when she called the cop on me, and I was kinda losing my mind when he showed up. I felt stupid. And she was there, judging me.”
“Did she say something?”
I shrugged tightly. “You know when someone’s judging you. Like she’s never dealt with something truly horrible in her life? I bet she hasn’t.”
His phone buzzed. He ignored it, shooting me a look. “Now you’re judging her.”
Maybe. I didn’t care. “He didn’t say he was going to arrest me, but he took me to the station and I never saw him again. Your cousin was brought in an hour later. The rest is history.”
His phone began buzzing again.
He ignored it. Again.
I asked, “Are you going to get that?”
“No.” His response was immediate and he didn’t spare me a look, taking another drag of his coffee. When it quieted and started off again, he sighed, putting his mug down. He hit accept and brought it up to his mouth, and growled into it, “Stop fucking calling me. I’ll come when I’m ready.”
A voice started to speak from the other end, but he ended the call and silenced it, stuffing it back in his pocket. As he did, he stretched back, and his shirt lifted, showing a corner of his stomach underneath. It was enough. My theory was confirmed. The man was ripped underneath that shirt.
I was also being reminded that it’d been three weeks since anyone had touched me.
Damn. What was it about this guy that was making me react like this? It was frustrating.
Catching my stare, he pushed his shirt back down, moving it over the gun that was holstered on his side. “You got a thing for cops?”
I hadn’t even noticed the gun. Funny. That should’ve been the first thing I noticed.
“Don’t get a big head. You’re not a cop anymore, right? Can you even still wear that thing?”
He grinned, relaxing back in his seat. He picked up his coffee, gesturing to me. “It’s all legal, if that’s what you’re worried about. Wore a gun for too long to not wear one so soon into retirement. Feel naked.”
Swoon. I was swooning.
He said naked.
His eyes heated. “You know what I mean?”
I wrinkled my nose at him, more to hide the effect his words were having on me. “Not about that, but yeah. I guess. I used to have sex regularly.”
I tasted acid in my mouth. Sex with Beck had never been mind blowing, but it’d been sex. I was able to get off with him, or some of the time. My vibrator was all the way back in my hotel room too.
“How long’s it been?”
“Since I had sex?”
He had that hawklike expression on him again. “Since the breakup.”
“Oh.” He knew. Damn. “Three weeks.” I began picking at my mug, scratching my nail at the handle. “The day he ended things, he fucked me before he told me he wouldn’t be marrying me. He’d been cheating on me, and they are going to have a kid instead.” I whispered that last part, but my nails suddenly started trying to rip into my mug.
“Did you want to have a kid with him?”
My eyes jerked to his again, and I held there. Feeling like the way he was looking at me was giving me a lifeline. Another one. “I don’t know. I . . . he and I had been together since college. We’re supposed to have kids. That’s what society says, right? Status quo. I never questioned it, but it wasn’t on my super-urgent list.”
The corner of his mouth curved up. “Not like the tourist list you have?”
I grinned, feeling like he was giving me another oxygen bubble. More air so I could breathe. “I should’ve taken his golf clubs to his car. He has a certain group of them that are his favorite. I should’ve taken those. I bought ’em.”
That made them mine.
My golf clubs.
My car.
My house . . .
A fresh wave of anger was starting to rise up in me.
“You dodged a bullet.”
“What?”
“I don’t know the guy, but you’re better off. I’ve seen the worst of the worst. If he’s going to do that to you, you don’t want to be tied to him for the rest of your life. Whoever got him, he’s now her punishment. My guess is that’s why you weren’t pushing the kid thing with him. A part of you knew having kids with him wouldn’t be a good idea. Then again, what do I know?”