Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
She squeezed my hand this time. “I’m incredibly attracted to you. Painfully so. But even if we were the same age, I’m not ready for a relationship yet.”
My shoulders slumped. I could argue she was wrong about the age difference, but how could I argue with needing to find herself? For the first time, I felt a sense of defeat sink in.
I nodded. “Okay.”
Val smiled half-heartedly. “I’m sorry.”
I leaned in and kissed her cheek, knowing it was time to bow out and call it a night. “Me, too.”
***
My dick was just as depressed as I was.
Unlike the other nights I’d come home from next door, I didn’t feel the need to beat off. I took a quick shower to wash the sand and salt off and slipped on a pair of sweats.
It was Saturday night and not even ten o’clock. I should’ve gotten myself dressed and gone out to find someone interested in perking both my limp dick and me up. But let’s face it, there was only one person either of us was interested in.
We wanted Valentina.
So instead, I fired up my laptop and started to answer some work emails. The first few were from my assistant—confirming appointments and asking what day I wanted to meet with the lawyers about converting one of the storage buildings to office space. Then I opened one from the VP of marketing. He gave me an update on our Match.com advertising campaign—the amount of the budget spent so far and which ad targets were performing the best.
Apparently, our temporary office space appealed most to divorced singles between the ages of thirty-two and forty who were not looking for a serious relationship.
I scoffed. It must be me.
Though it made sense. It was logical that people who had just come out of a bad marriage liked the idea of temporary office space. Their lives were in a state of flux, and the last thing they wanted to do was make a new, long-term commitment when that was happening. That’s what made our office space so attractive—you could use it anytime you wanted and walk away whenever you wanted.
Use it anytime you wanted and walk away whenever you wanted.
That thought smacked me right in the face.
Jesus Christ. Am I that big of an idiot?
I’d been going about things all wrong with Valentina.
She’d told me straight out she wasn’t ready for a relationship.
And what did I do? Go home to sulk.
I needed my head examined for not proposing an alternative.
Grabbing my cell, I shot off a quick text.
Ford: Can you meet me on the beach?
A minute later the dots started to jump around.
Valentina: Now?
Ford: Yeah. I need to ask you something.
Valentina: What is it?
Nope. Not happening. This was a conversation we needed to have face to face.
Ford: It will only take a minute.
Valentina: Okay. Give me a few. I just got out of the shower.
Anxious, I went outside to wait. Valentina met me at the bottom of the stairs on the sand. Her hair was wet, and she had on shorts and a tank top.
“What’s going on?” she whispered.
“I was thinking about what you said—that you’re not ready for a relationship.”
“Okay…”
I shrugged. “Let’s not have one.”
Her cute button nose wrinkled up. “What are you talking about?”
“Simple. We’re attracted to each other. You aren’t ready for a relationship, I’m not looking to get married, and your best friend thinks you need one under your belt. We’re both out here for the summer. With any luck, you’ll be getting a teaching job. Bella will go back to school, and I’ll go back to Manhattan. We’ll both be shuttering up out here for the summer in what…eight weeks? Why not spend that time enjoying the chemistry we know is there? No strings attached. We’ll part ways, and it ends. We’ll enjoy what we can be instead of regretting what we can’t be.”
“That’s…that’s crazy.”
“Why?”
“Because…” She trailed off, unable to come up with a reason.
I smirked. “Good argument.”
She squinted at me. “You don’t have to be an ass.”
A light breeze blew, and it carried the smell of something sweet through the air. I wasn’t sure if it was her shampoo, or perfume, or maybe just soap, but it definitely woke up the lazy dog between my legs who’d been pouting since I left her earlier. Slowly, I moved toward her. Valentina took a few steps back and hit the wood of the stairs behind her.
I ducked my head to align with hers and took full advantage. “What do you say? No relationship. No expectations. Just a summer of fucking—hard, soft, whatever you’re in the mood for—whenever you’re in the mood for it.”
Valentina’s chest heaved up and down. Why the hell hadn’t I thought of this sooner? It was the perfect arrangement, really. She wanted me as much as I wanted her—we’d both be getting what we needed. Val would get a carefree summer fling, her one under the belt, and I’d get to spend the next eight weeks screwing her out of my system. I honestly wanted to kick myself in the ass for wasting the last few weeks trying to get her to go out with me when the obvious solution had been right in front of me all along.