Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Turning, I dropped back against the door and let out a long sigh as I closed my eyes and rubbed at the slight ache in my chest.
“Damn you, Ryan Marshall. Damn you.”
Chapter Two
RYAN
Six months later – Early June
“How can one person have so much stuff?” Hunter asked as he pulled another box of his sister’s belongings from the back of his truck. “I thought you lived in a dorm.”
I took a smaller box out and handed it to Morgan while she glared at her younger brother. She looked beautiful today. But then, I thought she looked beautiful every day. Her light brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and her blue eyes seemed to match the color of the clear sky above.
“For your information, Hunter, I lived in a two-bedroom house for the past three years.”
Hunter paused for a moment, then grinned. “That’s right, with your hot roommate. What was her name again? Heather! That’s it.”
Morgan rolled her eyes and headed over to the stairs that led up to her apartment on the third floor above her boutique. Construction was nearly done on the store and the second floor, which housed storage, an office, and a design studio for Morgan. The third floor was a two-bedroom flat where Morgan would be living. Her dad, Brock, had started the construction pretty much the day after Christmas to get everything ready to open by summer. Right now, opening day was set for June 30th.
“And the security system is in?” I heard Brock ask Blayze.
“Yes, Dad. I told you I’d make sure that was set and ready to go when she moved in,” Blayze said, catching my eye right before they both walked by to grab more boxes.
“My dad is driving Blayze crazy,” Morgan said conspiratorially as she bounced up the three flights of stairs ahead of me. I wasn’t sure where in the hell the girl got her energy. We’d been up and down these steps what felt like a hundred times already. I was tired, and I’d only been unloading stuff into her second-floor studio.
“You’re going to have the best-looking legs in Hamilton with all these stairs,” Avery, Morgan’s younger cousin, said as she passed us going back down to grab another box.
“I know!” Morgan said and I heard the excitement in her voice. I was happy her dreams were coming true, and even happier she was going to be staying in Hamilton. One of my biggest fears had been that she’d move to Paris or New York City to pursue her fashion design career. Lucky for me, her future sister-in-law had gotten her to stay in town by partnering with her on the boutique.
I walked into the flat and let out a whistle. “This is nice.”
Morgan beamed. “Right? You haven’t seen it yet, so let me show you around.”
Letting Morgan grab my hand, I attempted to ignore the zip of energy that raced from the contact between our fingers.
She looked at me and grinned. “I love the open feel it has up here.”
I nodded as I looked around the large room. I already knew that when you took the stairs at the back of the building, you passed through a small laundry area off Morgan’s bedroom. When you walked in from the street-level entrance, as we had, there was a stairwell that took you to a third-floor door leading straight into her living room. The sofa was to the left, with a coffee table and two chairs opposite it. On the wall across from the sitting area was a large TV with built-in bookcases on either side.
The opposite side of the room had a galley-style kitchen, and a table with four chairs separated the living and kitchen areas.
“It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” I said as Morgan walked straight ahead and into what I guessed was her bedroom. It was pretty big, with a king-size bed and a large dresser. My gaze wandered over to her bed, and I tried hard not to picture her naked on the soft bedding.
She opened the door to her bathroom. “Look at that shower and the huge tub!”
I instantly pictured Morgan pressed against the wall of the walk-in shower while I pushed inside her…or us soaking in the tub, Morgan resting back against me while I gently rubbed my hands over her body.
“Are you okay?” she asked, shaking me from the erotic movie playing in my head.
“Ah…yeah. It’s beautiful.”
She stared at me for a moment, and I swore she could feel the crackle of electricity between us.
“Are you a shower kind of guy or a bath kind of guy?”
I glanced over at the tub, then back to Morgan. “If I had that tub, I suppose I’d be a bath kind of guy.”
Morgan bit down on her lower lip for a moment before she let out a breathy, “Oh.”