Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“You really have been looking into this,” he said, smile and eyes soft.
“I just think if women were given the right tools to get and keep their lives on track, the repercussions would be felt for, you know, generations. Kids who grow up in broken homes are more likely to continue the poverty-to-prison pipeline.”
“You know what I think?” Detroit asked, head tipped to the side.
“What?” I asked, tensing.
“I think it’s a fucking great idea.”
“It’s going to require a lot of schooling. A Bachelor’s, at least. But I’ve been looking into it, and I can do a lot of it online before I have to start traveling to a college.”
“Whatever way it has to happen, I think it’s worth it. You seem to really want to do this,” he said.
“I really do,” I said, nodding. “I’ve always felt a little… aimless, y’know? So many people I went to school with knew what they wanted to do with their lives. And I just… never knew. So I just got a job.”
“There’s nothing wrong with waiting for life to show you what you’re meant to do,” he said.
“Maybe I should thank Gray for making me finally see what I want to do with my life.”
“Yeah, I don’t think we need to go that far,” he said with a little chuckle.
“Guess what?” I asked.
“What?”
“Della is going to do it with me,” I said, beaming.
I’d needed to talk her into it.
Even after she told me all about it, sounding a lot like she’d looked into it herself at some point.
I think, to an extent, she’d gotten caught up in that cycle too. In and out of jail for prostitution charges, but no other way to make enough money to take care of herself, so it just kept happening over and over.
“She needs to finish her GED first,” I added. “But she’s been working on that.”
“That’s what you two have been doing every week,” he said, nodding.
We’d taken to having weekly diner dates. But, admittedly, we sat there for hours and hours as I helped her study and quizzed her, tried to help her rebuild her confidence. And, well, helping me brush up too. Apparently, I’d forgotten a lot of what I’d learned in high school. It was nice to have a refresher while she got caught up.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I know it was wrong to keep it from you…”
“Hey, no,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s okay not to tell me every little detail about your life. You know there are… things I can’t tell you too.”
“I just wanted to make sure it would all work out before I mentioned it,” I said. “And I just got my acceptance to the course that starts in the spring. Which will be perfect for Della too. She will be done in like three more weeks, if she passes. And she will. Then she will enroll too.”
“That’s really exciting, baby,” Detroit said, reaching out to give my thigh a squeeze.
“I know we are, you know… building something here,” I said, waving between us.
“We can build while you work on your career. They’re not mutually exclusive,” he said. “We got long lives ahead of us. A few years for you to work on something this important to you is no big deal. Besides,” he said, smirking. “I might be keeping something from you too,” he said, getting up to go grab his own laptop, opening it up, and then turning it to face me.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Plans. Ones I’ve been working on and not exactly sharing with you.”
“This is… is this a floor plan?” I asked.
“I was thinking… about building a house,” he said.
“Really?” I asked, brightening.
“Really. There are houses that go up for sale around here, but I thought it might be nice to buy one of the lots and build ourselves. But, of course, that would require us staying here for a few years. I didn’t know how you’d feel about that.”
“Well, now that I don’t need to get up at the crack of dawn, I don’t really care about the parties,” I said, shrugging. “Plus, the loud noise allows for… privacy,” I said, feeling my body warm just at the mention of getting steamy with him.
I don’t know what to say.
I’d become downright wanton with him.
Sex almost always with the lights on. In the shower, the bath, outside, in the car, and even, once, in the damn freight elevator. Which, apparently, was just something all the club guys needed to do at least once in their lives. And Detroit never had before. So once a party was really kicking off, I dragged him into it, stopped it between floors, then went down on him until he was grabbing me and slamming me into the wall, then fucking me until I was almost screaming with pleasure.
And, yeah, it didn’t exactly escape me that, despite the thick walls and lots of space between all of us, you could still hear people getting spicy.