Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 62197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
I stopped her before she continued. “It is never bad to ask me to sign your book. You read my words and loved them so much that you carry them with you. I’d be upset if I didn’t get to sign it.”
She let out a relieved sigh. “Thank you.”
She glanced at Birch again, as if making sure he was still there and not sure what to do about him. I still thought she might be interested, but my guess was, she thought he was with me.
“I’ll, uh, be right back.”
“No worries,” I told her. “Take your time.”
She nodded, then turned to walk back toward where the coat check was located, and I swung my gaze over to grin as I took a drink from my glass.
“Ouch,” I said teasingly.
He let out a disbelieving chuckle. “That was a fucking first.”
I just bet it was. “If it makes your ego feel any better, I still think she is interested in you. But she is unsure about us,” I said. “I can clear that up if you’d like me to.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think I can move past the fact that I just got passed over, and it wasn’t even for another dude.”
As I sat in the middle of all of this, actually enjoying the humor of it all, my mind instantly went to Ransom. I wanted to tell him about it. He’d think it was hilarious. The itch to grab my phone and text him sent the sadness barreling through the walls I’d tried to erect to hold it back—at least for tonight.
“She’s a gorgeous female, and she reads. You sure you want to pass that up? You normally just go for the ones who overuse filler words while talking about their latest visit to a photo shoot in Paris.” That was a little harsh, but my mood had sunk.
He shook his head as the corners of his mouth curled up. “If she’s reading your shit, then maybe I do want to hook up with her. She’s got some excellent pointers from that naughty imagination of yours.” He took a drink, then glanced back at me with a confused look. “What the fuck are filler words?”
After Amelia, the redhead, took her signed book and left to go back to her table—because Birch had decided to pass on her, which I thought was stupid—I went to the restroom. Jellie had kept Zeke on the floor for the next two songs, and I didn’t think they’d be coming back to sit anytime soon. I needed a quieter moment, and a stall in the restroom seemed like the only place I’d find that here. Plus, it would give Birch a chance to find a female for the night. I was sure his sitting with me was hindering that.
When I turned the corner to the stairs, it was already easier to breathe. I wasn’t one for crowds, and although this was nothing like what was happening outside on the street below, it was still a lot of peopling for me. I was unsure if the restroom was on this level, but exploring didn’t bother me. It gave me more of a break.
When I passed an older lady, I asked her if the restroom was this way, and she nodded but kept walking. Not very friendly, but again, I didn’t mind looking for it. No rush. I didn’t actually have to pee. Pausing to decide if she had come from the left or the right, I went left since it had more lighting and the darker set of stairs seemed less likely to be the way to go.
I’d barely taken three steps when a hand covered my mouth as an arm wrapped around my waist …
Nineteen
Ransom
“Easy, Shakespeare,” I whispered close to her ear, and the struggle she’d immediately put up ceased, making it easier to pull her into the hotel employee elevator.
Once the doors closed, I uncovered her mouth.
“What …” she said, sounding breathless as she stared up at me, wide-eyed, but it was only the briefest moment before her hand slapped my chest with what was probably meant to be a hard hit. “You scared me to death!”
Well, she shouldn’t have been out with a man at a fucking New Year’s Eve party.
“I told you I didn’t share,” I said, gripping her waist and tugging her closer to me as she tried to step back.
She was mad at me. I’d hurt her. But she didn’t belong here with some other fucking man.
A sharp, short laugh that held no humor came from her pretty lips, and again, she tried to free herself from my hold. It was pointless. I wasn’t letting go of her. I’d just put my life at risk to come get her.
Wayne’s call about a man going up to her apartment, dressed in a goddamn suit, had sent me speeding to the airport without any plan or thought. I’d already been in the private plane I’d paid too much for at the last minute when Wayne sent a text, saying that they had left together and, in his words, She was dressed up real nice.