Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
My heart twists in my chest and before I even know what I’m doing, I’ve shoved off of the bed. I’m storming to his bedroom door when I feel Zac’s strong hand grip my bicep. I blink away tears, refusing to look at him.
He puts a finger under my chin, tilting my face up. “You are beautiful.”
My chin wobbles. I hate this. I hate that all it takes is one comment and I’m back there again, back to eating in secret and pretending that I don’t have a body that disgusts everyone else.
He tucks a strand of my wild hair behind my ear. “My first thought when I woke up this morning was how amazing your body feels against mine. Every curve is beautiful. Looking at you—you steal my breath away. Don’t you ever feel like you’re not perfect just the way you are.”
It’s the first thing in the morning, and I haven’t brushed my teeth. I’m pretty sure I have some major bedhead going on. But the way he’s looking at me—with that longing in his gaze—I suddenly understand why he sells millions of albums. Because Zac Maple is the sweetest cowboy in the world.
Maybe he didn’t mean a word he said, but it still warms me that he cared to comfort me when I was upset. He still tried to reassure me.
My stomach growls loudly, reminding me that up until I flipped out, I did actually want that breakfast plate he brought into the room. “I guess I can eat but let me use the restroom first.”
With those words, I flee to the bathroom where I try to convince myself that I am not developing a crush on Zac Maple. That would be completely insane!
After I do my best to smooth my hair down and borrow some of his toothpaste to finger-scrub my teeth, I wash my face. Then I look in the mirror and give myself a stern talking-to. “It’s no big deal that Zac made you breakfast.”
As soon as I say the words, a pit forms in my stomach. I think this is about last night. He probably thinks we slept together. Maybe that’s all this is. He thinks we slept together so he’s trying to be kind until it’s time to kick me out of his house.
I need to find a way to let him know that we didn’t have sex last night. I wouldn’t do that to him. Not that I don’t like Zac. He has such a nice body. He’s big and stocky.
He looks like he could crush me up against his chest. I’d have no hope of escaping one of his bear hugs, and suddenly, I’d like nothing more than for Zac to do exactly that to me. I’d like him to bear hug me, pinning my arms to my sides until I had no possible way to escape his grip. Then I’d like him to hold me forever.
When I step back into Zac’s bedroom, he’s back on the bed again. He pats the spot next to him, and I can’t stop smiling when I join him this time.
I’m careful not to jostle him as I climb on. He offers me the first bite of lukewarm eggs, and I take it. It’s weird to be fed by someone else. I can’t remember the last time I had anyone look out for me. I don’t want to think too much about that, so I push the thought back. “Martha said you fell off stage a couple of days ago. How are you feeling now?”
He chuckles. “I’m not in too much pain now that you’re close.”
We eat in silence for a few minutes before I finally decide to talk about last night. I don’t want him getting the wrong idea about why I was in his bed. “Last night, we didn’t…you know.”
He frowns. “What?”
I’m pretty sure if my face were any hotter, this whole room would burst into flames. “You know, we didn’t do…things…together. Not that I would be your first choice for that. Or anyone’s, really. It’s that I don’t want you to have the wrong—”
He puts a finger to my lips, his gaze glittering as he stares at me. “You will always be my first choice to do…things…with. You are my only choice.”
OK, so the guy is weird. Before I can ask him what he possibly meant by saying that, his phone rings. He frowns, grabbing it off the nightstand. I see a woman’s name flash across the screen as Zac explains, “It’s my manager. She shouldn’t be calling me.”
As soon as Zac answers, a female voice booms across the line, “Batten down the hatches. The press caught wind of this.”
“How?” Zac demands.
I’m not sure what they caught wind of, but Zac doesn’t sound too worried.
He turns on speakerphone as his manager says, “A social media post from someone in your hometown went viral. Whoever posted it has pictures of you with your arm around Dotty’s shoulders. The media is running with it, bunch of vultures.”