Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Faye shakes her head slowly. “Nobody does. Except you and me.”
I reach over and take her hand. I was right, thinking that touching her would make it more achingly difficult to resist her. Her hand tightens around mine, and she squeezes on.
My cock grows hard, surging with a solid mass of animal need.
“What would we tell her?” Faye mutters.
“I don’t know.” I swallow. “I’m not thinking clearly here. It’s difficult around you, Faye. You’re too beautiful. Too captivating. Too sexy. I used to laugh at the phrase ‘muse,’ thinking maybe it was a line, something artistic men said to get women into bed. But you’re it, Faye. You’re my muse. If I think about photographing another woman…well, I don’t. I can’t, not since I came back, not since I saw you.”
Careful, the cautious part of me snaps.
She nods slowly, her grip getting even tighter.
“Do you mean that?”
“I’m not lying to you,” I say firmly.
I never will.
But I’m withholding how badly I truly want her.
Is that lying?
“So you don’t think we should tell her?” she prompts.
I sigh, letting go of her hand. It’s the question that makes me do it, but also the fact that my seed thinks contact means it’s time to make this happen, to grab her, lay her on the desk, tear off her pants, and bring my slick manhood to her even slicker slit.
“I don’t know.” I hate the indecision flickering through me. “I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Not even with Maddie?”
I flinch, leaning back in my chair.
Faye looks at me steadily.
Maddie was Lola’s mother.
“I’m sorry,” she says a moment later.
“You don’t need to apologize,” I tell her.
You deserve to know everything.
“I know it must be hard for you to talk about her.”
I shake my head, though she’s right. It’s always been difficult to talk about Lola’s mother, but not because Faye suspects.
Maybe she assumes there’s this great romance lurking in the background of my life, a tragedy that stole a storybook happy-ever-after from me.
“It’s not what you think,” I tell her.
She looks at me closely. “It isn’t?”
“No. And to answer your other question, no. I didn’t feel this way with Maddie. I’ve never felt this way with anybody.”
Careful, careful.
“Really?” she says.
“Really,” I tell her, my voice certain.
“Me neither,” she whispers. “But I thought….”
She trails off, her voice getting low, but I can tell what she wants to say.
“You thought Maddie and I had this amazing relationship. You thought it was the worst time of my life when she died, leaving me alone with a seven-year-old Lola. You probably thought that, if we ever had a relationship….”
There’s no if about it.
“You’d be in her shadow.”
She nods slowly, doing that cute-as-hell eye-widening thing again. It makes me want to kiss her, but that’s not saying much.
Everything does.
“That’s exactly it,” she says softly. “If I ever let myself think about this, about us…which I never do, not realistically.”
“You better start,” I tell her.
“That has occurred to me.”
“I can give you the truth about Maddie and me,” I say. “But depending on your viewpoint, it might make you like me less.”
“I highly doubt that.”
I shrug, my jaw clenched, my temples pulsing. “Shall we go for a walk? I need some air.”
“Sure,” she says, standing. “That sounds nice.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Faye
We walk through the park, the sun shining down on us, and a couple walks by us hand in hand. I’m tantalizingly aware of how close Felix is standing next to me, but we’re not touching for obvious reasons.
We don’t want Lola catching us.
Urgh, it makes me feel so seedy.
But at the same time, much of my concern melts away when I turn my gaze to Felix. The sun makes his silver hair glisten, catching the cut of his clean-shaven jaw.
He looks down at me, a light smirk on his lips, then it fades.
“So?” I prompt.
The smirk returns. “I thought you might’ve forgotten, gotten distracted by all this scenery. It’s the sort of stuff you enjoy photographing, isn’t it?”
We turn onto a wide gravel path that circles a large pond, ducks gliding across its surface. And Felix’s right. As I study them, I begin to think of ways to capture the beauty of what I’m seeing.
“Lots of people enjoy photographing nature,” I say, shrugging.
“So what?” Felix says. “Plenty of photographers have traveled Europe, doing projects fairly similar. It doesn’t make it any less yours, not if you can bring your unique flair to it. And looking at your work, Faye, I know you can.”
“You only looked at it for a couple of minutes,” I mutter.
He pauses, staring down at me, making me feel like he’s staring straight through my clothes. He could be since he can remember what I look like.
The hunger in his eyes never fades.
“I looked up your portfolio online.”
It takes me a moment to get it, then my hand flies over my mouth, trapping a gasp. “My high school photos? They’re amateurish as heck. I forgot they were even online.”