Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116455 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
I peered at him for a second, trying to make sense of his words. Who the hell was—
“Oh, Massimo! Shit.” I sighed. “Yeah. I guess I will.” I bit my lip a trifle guiltily. Massimo was a nice enough guy, and he hadn’t been pleased that I’d sent him to Mexico alone. I probably owed him more of an apology for changing plans at the last minute.
Flynn’s nostrils flared, and he smiled a brittle smile. “Good. Great. Best of luck with… everything. No hard feelings.” He strode past me to the Tavern’s front door lock, unlocked it, and swung it wide. “Drive safe.”
Drive safe? Crickets chirped in the darkness outside the door as Flynn and I stared at each other. Or, more like, I stared at him while he resolutely stared at not-me.
Reagan was right. When Flynn ignored me that profoundly, it meant he was hyperaware of me… and probably overthinking something.
“Did I…? No.” I shook my head. “Please tell me what’s going on? What did I do? Because I could guess, but I’d guess wrong, and then you wouldn’t speak to me for five years this time.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Flynn put his chin in the air. “I just assume that you want to save your energy for Massimo.”
“Whaaaat?” Why would I—?
The frustrated, embarrassed sound that escaped Flynn’s mouth made me want to wrap my arms around him. He ground his teeth together and finally bit out, “Look. You can… you can have a man in every port. Hell, you probably do. And most guys would be fine with that. But I’m not… I’m not down with being your man in this port. Okay?”
I blinked at him. At his stiff posture and carefully neutral face. At the blush that suffused his cheeks.
And when the light finally dawned, my jaw literally dropped.
“Oh, Flynn,” I breathed. I stepped toward him. Into him. Pushed the door closed behind him with one hand and then pushed him against it. “You idiot. I’m not going to have sex with Massimo.” I made a face at the very idea. “God, no.”
He grabbed at my shoulders and tried to shove me away. “Get off. Seriously, JT. You’re the idiot. I tried to bring this up and have a rational conversation. If you’re not going to fuck him, then why did you say—”
“I wanted to see him because I need to apologize to him. Though I’m thinking I can probably do that by text,” I added quickly. “And I agree. I’m a total fucking idiot. But in my defense, it never crossed my mind for a single second that you could be jealous.”
“I’m not—!” he began.
“I thought I was the only jealous one around here.”
Flynn shut his mouth with a clack, his gaze pinging from one of my eyes to the other. Cautious. Hopeful.
I rubbed my thumb over his bottom lip before tilting my forehead against his. “I don’t know how two people can speak the same language and not hear each other,” I said softly. “Maybe one of these days, we can start to believe that we don’t secretly want to hurt each other. That we’re something better than not-enemies.”
Flynn huffed out a breath.
I leaned back so I could look into his eyes. “But in the meantime, let me make this perfectly clear: you are the only person I want to be with, Flynn Honeycutt. The only person who’s getting my attention. The only man I think about. Okay?”
His fingers flexed into my shoulders. “For the summer, you mean. Since it’s a… a summer fling.”
If that was as much as he would give me, that’s what I would take. And if I already suspected that the summer was going to go by much too fast, well… we could renegotiate when the time came.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “That works for me. And in the meantime, there’s no one but the two of us. Deal?”
Flynn’s green eyes looked into mine warily. “Yeah, okay,” he agreed softly. “Deal.”
I threw my keys on the sideboard table in my apartment entryway and threw myself down on the sofa, heedless of my silk suit and all the wrinkles I was crushing into it. I felt like I’d lived six lives from the time I’d kissed Flynn goodbye just before dawn that morning.
Being back in my real life after so long away felt like the first workout after a long vacation from the gym. I’d lost all my stamina for polite elevator chitchat. I couldn’t bring myself to care about Jeff Namath’s big contract, even when he’d leaned against my office doorway and told me about it in annoying detail. The traffic and crowds that used to make me feel like part of something huge and vibrant were annoying. And when I’d walked into my building a few moments ago, the doorman had once again asked me for ID because he didn’t recognize me.