Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
He laughs. God, I love to hear him laugh and it means even more after what he confessed last night. I pee and turn on the shower. “Ready!” I call out only to have Reid already behind me, his big body walking me into the shower and pressing me against the wall.
“This isn’t the way to make the shower faster,” I tease.
“Sure it is. We fuck and shower at the same time. It's the definition of time management.” He lifts my leg and presses inside me, drilling hard and cupping my backside to angle my hips. And then he’s thrusting, his gaze raking over my breasts as they sway to his pumps, and I forget everything but how good he feels. How intensely he looks at me, how perfectly he fucks me and kisses me.
Yes.
I will live with you, Reid Maxwell, I think, and enjoy every minute.
Much later, we’re both dressed, me in a pink suit, and him in a navy suit with a blue tie the color of his gorgeous blue eyes, sitting at the island in the kitchen drinking coffee and eating eggs that he made us. Yes, Reid Maxwell does cook. The beast has a human side and that’s why I decide to breach a difficult topic. “Have you thought about telling Cat what you told me last night?”
“I don’t want her to know,” he says, and I’m pleased with how quickly he answers, how easily he’s let down his guard, though I doubt it felt easy to him. “But I need to make things right with her,” he adds. “I’ve been working on it, but I need to do more.”
“I think I’ll invite her to lunch, just to get to know her. Are you okay with that?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I just wanted to make sure.”
“Which reminds me.” He grabs my phone. “I’m putting her number and Gabe’s in your phone.” He keys them in and offers me my cell. “You know they’ll be there for you, Carrie. For all the hell my family has been through, my siblings are still loyal.”
“They know you are, too, even if you don’t get warm and fuzzy with them. I knew there was more to you, even when you were barking orders at me.”
He arches a brow. “You think that’s over?”
“No. Because it apparently turns me on since it always ends with us fucking.”
“Exactly.”
My phone rings and I glance at the caller ID. “Japan.” I answer the line and thirty minutes later I hang up. “It’s a huge number, but I got it. He’s emailing me a written declaration. I’m going to text Grayson.”
“Do it,” he says.
I punch in the message and then sigh. “It’s gonna happen, Reid. I feel it. I want to go to Paris to celebrate.”
“Paris it is.”
My cellphone rings and I glance at the number, and eye Reid. “Grayson,” I tell him and then quickly answer the call. “Hello,” I say.
“What’s the number?”
“It’s big,” I warn.
“Number, Carrie.”
“Two and a half billion.”
“Tell him it’s done. Get it in writing and then close it.”
“Oh,” I say. “Yes. Done.” I hang up. “He said to make the offer.”
Reid rounds the island and pulls me to him. “Paris, baby. You and me and a whole lot of money. But just remember, there will be so much negotiation of this contract that it’s going to take weeks if not months to close.”
“But it’s going to close.”
“Yes,” he says. “It’s going to close.”
My cellphone, still in my hand, rings and this time when I glance at the number I’m not as eager to answer. “My father,” I say tightly.
“You don’t have to take it.”
“I do,” I say. “I want it over with and right now on this high, I can deal with him better than otherwise.”
“Okay, baby.”
He releases me, and I hit the answer button. “Hi, dad.”
“Was the fire in your building?” he asks.
“Yes, it was.”
“And?”
“Total loss for me.”
“As in your apartment?”
“Yes, but I have insurance.”
“Okay,” he says, “so obviously you’re meant to be here with me. Come here now.”
My lashes lower and I grab the island. “Did you really just tell me that my apartment burned up so that I could be there?”
“Things happen for a reason. I came here and I belong here. You’ll feel the same.”
“You’re right. They do happen for a reason. I moved in with Reid.”
“What?” he growls. “You did what?”
“I love him. He loves me. I’m living with him. I’m with him.” I turn to face the island and Reid, who’s now directly across at the opposite endcap. “And you need to know that any action against the Maxwells is now an act against me. Do not go after Reid or his family, who, with the exception of his father, I really like.”
“You have no idea how that family affected our family.”
“I actually do. I know about mom and Maxwell Senior, but she left me and that speaks of her character. You didn’t leave me. She wasn’t worth the war you started over her. She wasn’t worthy of us, but you’re making yourself unworthy of anyone by engaging in this kind of war. Please be bigger than that.”