Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
“Mommy.” Kayden reached out his arms, deciding he wanted his mom to hold him instead of me.
Didn’t blame the kid a bit.
Tenderness billowed from her as we traded, and she ran a hand over his head as he snuggled into her chest, but she was still looking at me when she said, “Thank you for that.”
“Mean it,” I rumbled as I went back to the second pot that was just beginning to boil with water. I put in the noodles and stirred them, then set the timer.
“Why don’t you sit and relax?” I gestured to the stools on the other side of the counter. “Dinner will be ready in about fifteen.”
“I hungee,” Kayden told me.
I sent him a slow grin. “Of course, you are, K-Bear. You’ve gotta eat so you can grow even bigger.”
“I be big like my Rye-Rye!” He tossed his little hand above his head like he was aiming for the stars.
Affection pulsed thick. Both from Dakota and me, and I couldn’t look away as she moved to set him in his playpen then took the high-backed stool across from me.
“Do you want a glass of wine?” I was already moving for the cabinet to pull her out a glass before I grabbed the opener for the bottle of red that I’d picked up when I’d swung by the store after I’d left the shop.
I was going to have to make that delivery tomorrow night, and maybe it’d just been that I needed to do something normal tonight, so I’d decided to make dinner. Maybe I needed something to remind me of the good before I devolved into depravity.
Or maybe I just needed an excuse to be close to Dakota. It seemed the more I was around her, the more I wanted it.
To be in her space.
To experience her goodness, inhaling it like secondhand smoke.
Or maybe it was the idea of her signing up for that dating app that had set me off-kilter. Made me feel like I was going mad.
She groaned a throaty, deep sound that spoke directly to my dick. “Are you trying to spoil me, Ryder Nash?”
A smirk hitched at the edge of my mouth as I began to twist the corkscrew into the cork.
“Maybe just a little,” I told her as I poured her a glass and slipped it across the counter to her.
A giggle rolled from between those pouty, shimmery lips, and she picked it up and took a sip. “If this is a little, then I need to see what it’d be like if you really wanted to spoil someone. I bet you have all those women completely on their knees.”
She twined her fingers through the end of her ponytail, the razzing drifting off a fraction at the end.
I guessed neither of us could help but cringe with what she’d implied.
“Do you think I’d take the time to spoil anyone else but you, Dakota?” It was out before I could stop it, no way to reel the confession back before it’d hit the air.
Fuck.
I focused on stirring the noodles rather than taking in the confusion that tripped through Dakota’s features.
It didn’t matter if I wasn’t looking at her, anyway.
I could still feel it.
Could sense the way she wanted to ask me what I meant.
She took a long drink of her wine like it could quell the questions that were dancing on her tongue all while the woman was watching me like I was a riddle to figure out.
“Are you sure I can’t help?” she finally asked a couple minutes later.
“Nah, I’ve got it. You sit there and relax those pretty feet.” I managed to find the teasing again.
She smirked. “I have news for you, Ryder. No one’s feet are pretty.” Then she curled up her nose. “Unless you have one of those foot fetishes?”
She leaned forward, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, fighting a smile like she was horrified by the thought.
Only if they’re your feet, sweet thing.
“What, you have a thing against fetishes? And here I thought you were into some crazy kink?”
A blaze of red rushed across her face when I gave voice to what had been eating at me for the last three days.
Visions constantly invading my mind and stirring my cock into greed.
I wanted to ask her what her fantasies were and then take her to them time and again.
“That was just Paisley trying to get a rise out of us.” She muttered it below her breath.
“Yeah?” I asked as I drained the noodles in the sink, cutting her a glance as I did. “The kink or the dating app?”
Yeah. I’d come across as a misogynist prick Saturday morning.
But I couldn’t stop the reaction, the way my stomach had sank and every nerve in my body had short circuited at the thought.
The thought of losing her.