Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 89012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“All right, Mad—let’s start here. Why did you come? Did you want to come? Did you think it was a joke and then got roped into it by Sara? Did Sara and Rebecca say anything about this other than what was in the post on Social? What? Explain it to me.”
She begins to nibble on her fingernail. She’s nervous. I place my hand over hers, feeling her smooth skin beneath mine, and tug her fingers away from her lips.
Her entire body stills at the contact.
My heart begins to pound.
“Okay. First of all, breathe when you ask questions. It helps.” I smile at her and ignore her glare. “I wanted to come so I knew you weren’t out gallivanting with some asshole who would take advantage of you.” It’s the truth. Mostly. “Jess pointed out that you might be looking for a rebound, and the thought of some Eton-like motherfucker preying on you made me want to hit people.” Complete truth. “Hard.”
Her lips twitch. “Rebound? Like basketball?”
I don’t say anything, but she grins anyway.
“Well,” she says, her grin turning smug. “I’ll have you know that Jess was right.”
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
No fucking way. There’s no fucking way.
She wants a hookup, and her friends knew this, and they sent me …
She laughs. “Yeah. You wanted to know how you screwed up my plan, so I’ll tell you. I haven’t had fun in a long time—both … intramurally and interpersonally if you catch my drift. And I had this trip booked, and Sara got the contest idea when I threatened to take Warren to help dispel my dry spell, if you will.”
I glare at her. She only grins harder.
“So due to my terrible taste in men, my friends were going to pick someone who responded to my call to action that was obviously interested in me so I could have a few days of casual sex without having to select someone myself before going on about my life. Kind of like a palate cleanser, so to speak.” She nods as if she’s pleased with herself. “Now do you understand?”
Nope. And how do you say all of that in one sentence?
I shift in my seat. My entire body was just hit with a shot of adrenaline, and due to federal law, I can’t act on it.
“Let me get this straight. You were trolling those responses—or having your friends troll them—for a hookup?”
My brows lift higher and higher as each word slips out of my mouth.
“Yup.” She pops the p. “And here you are. I’m sort of wondering where my friends and I got our wires crossed.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I run a hand down my face and laugh in disbelief. “Well, this is wild.”
“You think? See why this is a little awkward? Why I didn’t tell you what was going on?”
I adjust myself as discreetly as I can. “Honestly … no. I don’t.”
“Seriously?”
“Okay, I get why you didn’t tell me. We’ve pointedly avoided talking about hooking up our entire life—for good reason.”
She nods cautiously.
“But …” My heart pounds. Palms sweat. Can I really say what I’m thinking?
In one way, it feels stupid to rock the boat. What Ashley and I have is consistent and good. But we’re here, and her friends knew what she was after … And my lord, I want her.
I move my hand closer to hers—not quite touching it, but close enough that if she didn’t like it, she’d move it away. But she doesn’t. She holds still, holding her breath as if she’s waiting to see what I’m going to say.
Like she wants me to say the words on the tip of my tongue.
Fuck it. You only live once.
“Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t think about fucking me, Ash.”
She struggles to swallow. Her breathing shallows, and she is absolutely still.
“I’m about to be really honest with you.” I lean forward so the other passengers don’t get an earful. “I think about fucking you every day. Every. Single. Day. I wonder what you taste like, what you sound like when you’re coming—what you’d feel like wrapped around my cock.”
“Mad …”
“Am I fucking everything up by admitting this? Maybe. But you can’t tell me you don’t already know. You can’t tell me you don’t think about it either. Ever since that day in La Pachanga, it’s been different between us. Tell me I’m wrong.”
She doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak. She sure as hell doesn’t tell me that I’m wrong.
I take a deep breath. I’ve already gone over the edge. What’s there to lose now? “If you want a hookup, I’m here. I’m here, and I’m all too happy to give you what you want.”
She’s frozen in her seat, completely unmoving. Her eyes are as big as saucers as she watches me.
I don’t know what I expected her reaction to be, but it wasn’t this.