Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Annoyed because it’s obvious she doesn’t want his attention, and he’s not backing down, I set aside my cell and get up. The closer I get, the clearer I hear him trying to coerce her into letting him buy her a drink. With her sunglasses now on the top of her head, I can see that she is starting to panic because he’s not giving up.
I walk up to her and get in her space, shoving my sunglasses up, too. “Hey, baby.” I look down at her, wrapping my arm around her waist and ignoring the shock etched into her pretty features. Jesus, she’s cute. And without her sunglasses, I can see that her eyes are an unusual brown with gold near the center. “Did you already order your drink?”
“Umm,” she whispers, looking adorably confused.
I can’t help but grin. “I changed my mind about the water.”
“Hey, man.”
My smile slides away as I turn my head, leveling my gaze on the guy behind me. He visibly swallows. “Can I help you?”
“I…” He blinks, and then his brows come together like he’s trying to figure something out.
If he wasn’t wasted, he might say he recognizes me. But in the state he’s in, and with the stench of alcohol coming off him, I doubt he’d recognize his own mother if she was standing right in front of him.
I don’t pull my gaze off his as I order. “Get our drinks, babe, so we can get back to our chairs.”
She steps away from me, sliding out of my hold, and I listen to her order two bottles of water.
The guy glances back at his friends, who are now watching the two of us. Then his eyes meet mine. “Do I know you?”
“I doubt it.”
He shakes his head like the action will clear some of the fog. “You look familiar.”
“Yeah, I get that a lot.” I turn my back on him and get in her space again. Once she has the two bottles of water, I walk her back around the pool to our loungers, hovering my hand over her lower back but not touching her.
“You okay?” I ask softly when we reach our chairs. She lets out a long breath.
“Yeah.” She glances at the guys in the pool, their friend back with them now. All of them are watching us. “Thanks for saving me,” she whispers.
“Anytime.” I put my sunglasses back on and sit, watching her pick her bag off the ground and start putting her book inside. “Don’t let them make you leave,” I tell her quietly, and she glances over at me. “If you wanna go, that’s fine. But don’t leave because of them.” Biting her full bottom lip, she nods once and places her bag on the pool deck, taking a seat with her book on her thighs. “What are you reading?”
“World Beneath,” she answers without looking at me and opens to the page her bookmark is holding.
“What’s it about?”
“Marine biology,” she answers again without looking up.
“That’s an interesting choice of reading material.” Honestly, with the title, I thought it might be some fantasy or sci-fi book.
She turns my way. “I’m hoping to get into the marine veterinary program here.”
“Really?”
Really.”
“That’s cool as fuck,” I mutter, and she flashes a small smile. “Do you live here?”
She nods. “I just moved to Miami.”
“Me, too. Where did you move from?”
“Minnesota.”
“Seriously?”
“Did you move from there, too?”
“No, Tennessee,” I say. She laughs, and the sound makes me smile. “I said ‘seriously’ because it’s rare that I meet someone from Minnesota.”
“I guess.” She leans back in her seat, raises her knees, and presses her feet into her chair. “So, why did you move to Florida?”
“Work,” I say simply and leave it at that. I don’t think she recognizes me. Then again, she could be one of those women who thinks pretending they don’t know who you are will score them points. It doesn’t. In the long run, it’s just annoying.
“Cool,” she mutters, turning her attention to the book on her lap. I frown at her easy dismissal.
Chapter 3
Reese
I knew moving from Minnesota to Florida would be an adjustment, but I assumed the weather would be the biggest thing I’d have to get used to. I was wrong. It’s the people, or more accurately, the number of drunk jerks who come to party for the weekends and believe every woman on the beach, by the pool, or just out and about is seeking their attention. We’re not. Or, at least, I’m not. The guy from earlier wasn’t the first to hit on me without me giving them the slightest inkling that I was interested. The first time I came to the pool, I wore a bikini and stupidly thought that was the reason for the unwanted attention. After today, I realize it’s just because I’m female.
I look at the guy lying next to me out of the corner of my eye and feel the heat rise to my cheeks when my eyes connect with his muscular, tan torso. When he first came out of the building, I noticed him the same way all the other women did. It was difficult not to. He’s gorgeous with his dark hair, chiseled jaw, broad shoulders, and lean, muscular frame. For a moment, I thought I recognized him, but it was only because he looked like he would play the leading hero in some action movie or be on a billboard in Times Square. I never would have expected him to come rescue me from the guy at the bar like some kind of white knight. But if he hadn’t come over to save me, there is a chance I would have let that guy in the pool buy me a drink just so he’d back off. Because me telling him, “no thank you,” the three times he asked hadn’t worked.