Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“I’ve got this, Bianca.” Trying to keep a straight face, Blair pulled a credit card from her wallet. “You go on home to your insatiable fiancé.”
“Thanks, Blair.” I kissed her cheek. “I’ll talk to you later. Lovely to meet you, Reina! Maybe we’ll see you here Friday night.”
“I’m not working Friday night.”
“What a bummer! Well, maybe we’ll see you around. Ta!” Then I got the hell out of there before I did any more damage.
But I cracked up all the way home.
Later that night, I lay in bed and texted Enzo.
Me: Ran into your ex today.
Immediately he called me. “What the hell? You mean Reina?”
“Yes.” Smiling, I settled back against my pillows. “She’s super hot. Why didn’t you want to bang her again?”
“I just didn’t, okay? What did she say?”
“Well, she overheard me talking about the wedding, and she was confused, since you had proposed to her so recently.”
Enzo groaned.
“Don’t worry, I made it all work. I told her how we’d been high school sweethearts back in the day—I figured she was in diapers that long ago, anyway—and thank goodness she rejected your suit, because that opened the door for our magical reunion and now all is as it should be.”
“And she bought it?”
“As far as I know. I’m pretty sure she was too busy being offended that you never touched her but you can’t keep your hands off me.”
“What the fuck? Who told her that?”
“I did,” I said, laughing. “And it was really fun.”
To my surprise, he started to laugh too. “I bet she was pissed.”
“I think baffled is a more fair assessment. I could see the wheels spinning, like she was trying to figure out what I have that she doesn’t.”
“Ha.”
“Seriously, Enzo. The girl is stunning. Why didn’t you want to bang her?”
“I don’t know.” He sounded a little defensive. “She just didn’t do anything for me.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t help being pleased.
“Or maybe I was too preoccupied to think about sex, worrying about how I was going to get my dad to change his mind.”
“Problem solved,” I said triumphantly.
“Not really. I just traded one problem for another one.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, I’m meeting with my dad and his lawyer tomorrow to sign all the paperwork transferring majority ownership of Moretti & Sons to me, but I’ll be celibate for at least a year.”
“Oh. That problem.” I pulled a decorative pillow onto my stomach and played with its fringed edge. “Well, it’s a problem we’ll share, at least.”
“Will you even miss it?”
“Sex?”
“Isn’t that what we’re talking about?”
My skin warmed beneath my blankets. I had to take one leg out to cool off. “Yes. But hopefully I’ll be pregnant soon.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“My body will be . . . otherwise engaged,” I said. “I’ll be too busy growing a human to worry about satisfying selfish needs.”
“Is that really what you think? That sex is a selfish need?”
“You don’t think there’s something selfish about sexual gratification?”
“No. Because I always make sure whoever I’m with is gratified first and fully before I think about myself.”
I took the other leg out. “Oh.”
“Sex isn’t selfish, Bianca. People are selfish. And it sounds like you’ve only been with selfish people.”
“There haven’t been that many,” I said. I’d only been with two guys before Tate, and neither experience had wowed me. Tate had wowed me at first, but maybe I was just young and inexperienced. And after a while it didn’t seem like I excited him that much anymore, which was probably why he’d sought excitement elsewhere.
“Whatever. I’m not one to judge someone for their sexual behavior—no, I take it back. I judge those assholes you were with who made you think sex was a selfish act.”
“Maybe it’s my old Catholic guilt talking,” I said with a sigh. “When you spend all those years being taught by nuns, you grow up associating sex outside marriage—or even taking pleasure in it—with sin and shame. It took some time for me to unlearn that stuff and be okay with enjoying myself.”
“Clearly I did not attend Catholic schools.”
“Well, I think it’s something they mostly emphasize to girls. I used to think you could get pregnant if you lay down next to a man in bed, even if you were fully clothed.”
“Jesus. We’re not sending our kid to Catholic schools, are we?”
The question took me by surprise. “I’m not sure. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
“Yeah, I guess we don’t need to worry about it now.”
“What we do need to worry about is when I’m moving in with you. People are going to think it’s weird if we get married and I still live here alone.”
“Right.”
“JJ is all set to move in here. My parents love the idea because they’re so sick of him living at home. They even offered to pay half his rent. If he’d quit all the stupid trips to Vegas and betting on sports, he’d be able to afford a place of his own.”