Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 113617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 568(@200wpm)___ 454(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
And it was not lost on me that Duncan was not hiding he was keen to see my reaction to his home, but it came especially when he showed me his room.
Therefore, it was then it hit me his room should be one part of the verdant valley of the life we could be living.
But there was a hell of a mountain range still to climb.
He finished with the fire and came to me, and another sudden sense of awkwardness stole over me.
I knew this man biblically.
We’d been the best of friends and we’d been the best of lovers.
This was not taking anything from Tom.
I’d had two lovers, outside of Duncan and my ex-husband, and they had not been fun (which shared why there were only two).
Tom, as with everything he did, was about skill and results. There was passion, there was love, there was intimacy and affection, and there was an abundance of all of that, and sometimes even fun, and all of it worked on me greatly.
With Duncan, however, it was just hunger.
Corey had exaggerated in what he’d said in his letter. Out of necessity, considering we needed to sleep, and work, and eat, and talk, and share our life worries and annoyances and just share, we’d come up for air.
But Corey had not been far off base.
In the fourteen months we were together, outside that time I had a terrible cold, but through the time Duncan had thrown out his shoulder (we’d just compensated), morning and night (and if it was the weekend, we often spent it in bed), we were making love.
Without fail.
We couldn’t get enough of each other.
I’d thought it would calm down.
It never did.
Not until the day he left.
I’d let only one guy go there in between Duncan in high school, and him again a few years later. I’d only had one man between him and Tom.
And no one since Tom.
And now, it was like I was fifteen again and had no idea what to do.
Which was one mountain we had to climb.
However, it had been a long time since it was Duncan who was that man who had my interest, and I’d forgotten.
But as he assessed me as he came my way, I remembered.
And then he demonstrated.
He could read me.
And he always knew what to do.
In this instance, he took my hand and shifted, so when he fell, he fell on his back to the couch and I went with him.
He then arranged us so I was on my side, back to the couch, front mostly on him, one of his legs stretched out on the couch, his boot on his other foot on the floor. He had an arm around me, and he did not hesitate to bring the other hand up to take control of a hank of my hair, move it forward, twist it around his fingers, and allow it to fall down my front.
“I dye it now,” I whispered.
His eyes went from my hair to mine. “I do not care.”
I dropped my forehead to his shoulder.
“Baby, who you are, I could not escape it. I watched you grow from who you were to the woman you are now. You are not frozen in time for me. And you cannot be unaware that you’re still as gorgeous as you ever were.”
I could deny that.
My career as it was essentially ending at age forty-five made that very apparent to me.
And I was one of the very few lucky ones.
I lifted my head.
“Duncan—”
“You know, we got shit to face with Sam and us catching up and our kids getting in the mix and you in Phoenix, me here, and the fact one photo of us on social media means we got a hashtag and some crazy mashup of a name. Do not focus on shit that is not an issue. I was attracted to you when you were fourteen and I was attracted to you when you were twenty-four and I’m a little shocked with the way I’ve been with you that you’d even doubt how attracted I am to you now.”
He was making sense and I was being an idiot.
And there was a great deal of relief that I was not the only one who was aware that our vista was not without challenges.
“We need to tackle all of that,” I pointed out.
He grinned playfully.
And heavens, did I like that grin.
He’d had it before, of course.
But maturity had made it so much better.
“Can’t we just make out in front of the fire until your girl texts she’s on her way home?’
I felt my lips curl up. “As tempting as that offer is, it would make me feel better if you knew what you were in for.”
“And that would be?”
“Well, as you mentioned, we have a hashtag and have already earned a mashup. This will require my publicist getting involved.”