Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Intimacy with Rosalind was exactly like her personality. It was loving, giving, soft, sweet and on tap all the time. It was about whispers and touches that communicated adoration and complete connection. It had seemed impossible, and he’d often marveled at it, but it was true that nearly every time, their orgasms had been simultaneous.
Sinking inside his wife felt like coming home.
And now, after the kiss they’d shared, Jamie knew sex with Nora would be explosive. It’d be unpredictable. It’d be cat and mouse, or a fight for supremacy. It’d be combustible. It’d be consuming. It’d be heat and fire and the world would melt away. There would be no work. There would be no worries. There would only be Nora.
Jamie and Nora.
He wanted to experience that.
More, so much more it was like an ache, he wanted to give it to her.
But he couldn’t.
After what Belinda put his son through, and what losing Lindy had put all of them through, he couldn’t do it to his children.
Further, Jamie was an honest man, and extended that to himself, so he also knew he couldn’t go through it again.
Love was pain.
His father taught him this important lesson with how he treated Jamie, and his siblings, but mostly with how he saw AJ treat Jamie’s mother.
But he’d tried anyway, and found Belinda, then lost Rosalind.
Both had brought him to his knees.
Worse, the first had nearly destroyed his relationship with his son, and he’d had to watch his daughter lose the most important person in her life.
So…no.
He couldn’t do it again.
“I’m manning the bar,” he shared unnecessarily as she made her way to him. “And before you place your order, I need to tell you that I was unable to change Hale’s or Judge’s minds about our enforced weeklong cruise.”
She stuttered to a halt and shot him a killing look he knew wasn’t aimed at him, even if it physically was.
Unfortunately, he had to continue. “I also spoke with Tom, hoping I could appeal to his level head, and he’d intervene. This, too, was unsuccessful.”
The conversation with Tom had been his second least favorite of the three, considering Jamie was certain Tom would step in, so hearing he wouldn’t was far from fun.
Nora tossed an exasperated glance to the ceiling before she stalked behind the bar with him.
She put her miniscule bag that probably only fit her lip gloss on the bar, along with her phone, and lifted her arms with bent elbows, gold bangles jingling and flared sleeves fluttering as she waved her hands and waggled her fingers like a magician would do, all while she stated, “I called Mika, Genny, Chloe, no joy. I won’t share what they said, because I sense you got the same from Hale, Judge and Tom. I then requested a rescue from Allegra and Valentina, which meant I faced further defeat. Both of them have been corralled into this farce by Cadence. Nico, however, said he’d find a speedboat and rescue us.”
Valentina was her last born, a daughter.
Nico was her second born, her only son.
Jamie had met all her children, mostly in passing at the various charity events she organized. Though, on occasion, they’d dropped by her apartment when he and Nora were having dinner or watching a movie. He liked them all, even if they were nothing like their mother, who, until recently, he’d liked enormously (and he would again, after they got over this bump).
Her children were, to his surprise, a lot like Judge, Dru and Cadence, except they were married, or in Valentina’s case, partnered up without the intention to ever marry, but with a life commitment.
And he was unsurprised that Nico would ride to her rescue.
The only person who hated Roland Castellini more than Jamie did was his son.
You didn’t fuck over a son’s mother.
He’d tried to teach his father that, and failed, only because AJ Oakley paid attention to no one but himself.
“Where’s the muddler? I desperately need to muddle something,” she mumbled irately, looking around the bar area.
And damn.
He had not forgotten that the woman was almost always uproariously funny.
Maybe especially when she was annoyed.
He just didn’t need the reminder.
“Nora,” he called.
She turned her head and tipped it to look up at him.
The perfect opportunity for a kiss, and worse, with her lips glossed with her usual perfection, he badly wanted to give her one.
Goddamn it.
“We’re going to have to make the best of this.”
“I haven’t given up on Nico.”
“I’m not sure a speedboat would catch up to us at this juncture or make it with the fuel limits.”
“It feels like we’re crawling.”
“We are. We’re probably going seven miles an hour.”
Her eyes got big.
And occasionally, she could be cute.
He was in hell.
“But I hate to remind you of this, in the summers, your son lives in Vermont,” he concluded.
Nico was an English teacher, his wife a history teacher, and during the summer, to make extra money, and enjoy what they both enjoyed, the outdoors, they moved to a cabin by a lake and both of them taught writing classes at a local college.