Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Goddamn it. This man is going to make me break my sacred vow. He can’t keep talking like that. Where’s the grouchy, dom-daddy from that first night? Now he could set me straight, but this guy right here, the one who murmurs delicious little nothings about how I amaze him, is going to ruin this for both of us.
“I should, umm—”
“Tilly,” Zeph’s voice comes from across the house, making Caesar and me spring apart like two horny teenagers being caught making out behind the bleachers. He strides through the house, cutting through the living room on his way to the kitchen. “When did you get here? I didn’t hear you come in.”
I scoff as he tries to keep up the ridiculous lie about me not having been here earlier. “Joke’s up,” I say. “Your dad clocked me under the table.”
“Fuck!”
Caesar chuckles to himself as I brace my hands against the kitchen counter when he moves in beside me, keeping a respectable distance between us. “Right, tell me why the fuck there’s a bruise right in the middle of your head.”
Letting out a heavy sigh, I dig my phone out of my pocket and find the video from last night before handing it straight over and listening as my shame plays on full volume, right from the awkward spinning through to the dildo unicorn falling into the sofa and getting trapped.
“Fucking hell,” Caesar mutters under his breath as Zeph just laughs, having already watched it ten times over.
“Yeah,” I agree. “It wasn’t my finest moment. I was stuck inside that damn sofa for half an hour. We had to call Zeph to come rescue me, and I’m ashamed to say that the sofa didn’t quite make it out alive.”
He arches a brow and looks at his son. “You broke her sofa?”
“Uhhh, yeah. I kinda had no choice. It was either break her out of it or let her suffocate in there.”
“I hope you bought her a new one and organized for the old one to be removed and disposed of.”
Zeph lets out a heavy sigh. “No, but I suppose I can.”
I shake my head, meeting Zephyr’s stare across the kitchen island. “You don’t need to do that. I can figure out my own sofa.”
“I’m sure you can,” Caesar tells me. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to allow it. Zeph will have it organized for you by the end of the day. You should expect a new one first thing tomorrow morning.”
“I have a feeling arguing isn’t going to get me anywhere.”
“No, hellcat. It won’t,” he murmurs, that nickname slipping out in front of Zeph, but luckily, he seems to already be engrossed in his phone, searching up furniture stores.
I sidle up next to Zeph, leaning against the counter as we scroll through the endless options of sofas, and while I’m more than happy to select the very first one we came across, Zeph seems to have an opinion on all of them. They’re either too yellow, too square, or too happy, whatever the hell that means, and as he scrolls through page fourteen of the listings, I can’t help but remember the moment he came to help me last night.
He was a gallant hero, of course. I wouldn’t have expected anything less, but what I didn’t expect was the way that Chloe and Zeph immediately hated each other. It’s so out of place for both of them.
As a general rule, Chloe loves everyone. She gives them the benefit of the doubt, and they would have to commit some heinous act before she decided to change her mind. While I don’t particularly know Zeph all that well, it’s clear from the few times we’ve hung out that he’s wildly accepting. He’s nice to everyone, has a great personality, and just generally vibes all the time. He doesn’t care when I tease him, and he doesn’t hesitate to give it right back.
Yet when two of my favorite people laid eyes on one another, it’s as though someone poured a giant bucket of ice right over the sun. The warmth was sucked out of the room, not that I could see much at the time, but I could sense it. I just can’t figure out why.
It’s intriguing. Suspicious almost.
I was left scratching my head, but the ridiculous amount of cherry vodka I’d consumed ensured that I didn’t have to think about it for long. I passed out pretty quickly, only just now thinking about it for the first time, and now that I am, I’m not sure if I should bring it up. Maybe I should interrogate Chloe about it first. She should be able to shed some light on it.
Almost an hour goes by before Zeph finally decides on a sofa he thinks would be the best fit for my small apartment, and just as he’s entering the delivery details for tomorrow morning, my phone goes crazy on the counter.