Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
He’d done the heads up and hadn’t thought of it since. In fact, he hadn’t heard a word about Paloma since.
“Yes. Why?” he asked.
“Because she’s dating AJ Oakley.”
That alarm banded across the back of his neck.
She wasn’t AJ’s type. He was in his eighties, she was in her forties or fifties, but he usually went for arm candy in their twenties.
This was an unholy alliance.
And a long time for her to hold a grudge.
He ignored his wine and grabbed his phone in order to call Jamie.
Because Paloma could be a nuisance.
But AJ Oakley, Jamie’s dad, was a piece of shit.
And if AJ had the opportunity to prove what a shit individual he was, he never hesitated to take it. There was no love lost, and Jamie had humiliated his father during his and Hale’s takeover of Core Point Athletics.
So Hale didn’t think this was a coincidence.
But he knew Jamie needed to know about it.
Early Monday morning, he stopped fucking Elsa’s face, pulled out, and ordered, “Come here.”
She got up to her knees in front of him, and he kissed her deep while he leaned forward, setting her on her back.
Then he buried himself in her hot tight before he returned to his knees, pulling her hips up as he went. He held her steady and watched her take him. That blond hair all over his comforter, those big blue eyes hazy with need, but still locked on him.
“You’re unbelievably fucking beautiful,” he murmured, his voice thick.
“You are too,” she replied, her voice husky.
“Arms over your head,” he ordered, then, after she did it, said, “There’s a good girl.”
At his words, her cunt clenched his cock, and she whimpered.
Totally his.
All that beauty, all his.
On this thought, Hale started to fuck her harder, did this until she came, and he kept doing it until he did.
He left her in bed to get rid of the condom and was unsurprised she stayed there and cuddled close when he returned.
She needed to get to work.
He needed to get to the airport.
Neither of them moved.
She was the one who broached it.
“Okay, I was prepared for this, but I’m going on record to declare it still sucks.”
He held her closer and agreed, “Yeah.”
She sighed against his skin.
For long moments, they remained just how they were, to the point Hale wondered if he’d be able to let her go.
It was Elsa who found the strength.
She kissed his jaw, then said, “We can do it. Three weeks, and then I’ll see you in LA.”
He didn’t loosen his grip as he repeated, “Yeah.”
She smiled at him, lifting her hand to his face then smoothing it back into his hair. “I mean, seriously. With you gone, I’m really going to miss Paul.”
Fuck.
This woman.
That was what he needed, they both needed, to break the spell.
For now.
So Hale clutched her close as he busted out laughing.
And then it was Hale who found the strength to pull them both out of bed.
CHAPTER 18
THE IN BETWEEN
Them
Her…
I was pacing my living room, waiting for my phone to ring.
It was the Saturday after Hale left. He was in Sydney. We had a phone date that day.
It would be the first time I’d spoken to him. There had been lots of texts, a few voicemails, but since he went from New York to Tokyo, Tokyo to Sydney, and the time zones weren’t conducive to it, we hadn’t talked.
I missed him.
A lot.
Once we got over that first hurdle of dinner at his place Wednesday night, things had been great. Sex in the morning. Work. Coming home to him. Deciding on something to eat. Sex at night. Going to sleep beside him. Repeat.
I’d been right at the beginning. Red flags were few. He had his boundaries, but I had to learn to tough it out when I ran up against one.
And I was going to do it because he was worth it. Affectionate and communicative and open-minded and unbelievably hot in bed.
And I didn’t care what it said about me, I loved how he made me feel beautiful.
No, extraordinary.
He made me feel extraordinary. The way he looked at me, touched me, fucked me.
Met me at the elevator the minute I walked out when I came home to him at night.
Maybe it was a lifetime of feeling like the outsider in my family, starved for it all my life, now having Hale’s attention, his affection, his total and complete focus when we were intimate.
But in truth, it was all of that, and all if it coming from a man like Hale.
I liked being Hale Wheeler’s girlfriend because it meant he was all mine.
For now.
(But I refused to think about the “for now” part, I was too happy now, so happy, I didn’t mind I was being foolish in deciding I’d worry about that later.)
We even had our first “couple friends,” Gemma and Jadyn, who were really lovely.