Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“You’re good at this,” I told Shawn. “I’m going to be completely honest, I feel like a fish out of water, talking to anyone about anything remotely personal.”
“Don’t sweat it,” he said. “I’m so happy to talk it out with you. I struggled a lot before I admitted my feelings for Rush, too. It’s good to have people to talk to.”
I scratched the back of my head. “I’ve kept to myself for my whole life. But I’m starting to think you’re right.”
“Anytime, Adam. Really.”
We wrapped up our meeting in another half hour, and I drove back home thinking about everything Shawn had said. I felt like I was in a daze as I drove through the afternoon light that filtered through the pine trees.
It had been liberating to talk to someone else about my inner world, but it was also surreal.
Shawn hadn’t made fun of me.
He hadn’t laughed.
He hadn’t even backed off, telling me that I was being weird.
It was like my childhood had conditioned me into expecting bad results at every turn, when in reality, it just wasn’t true. The people in my life really were supportive and friendly. They weren’t going to judge me for what I said, and they sure as hell weren’t the bullies I remembered from when I was a young kid and a teenager.
They respected me, actually.
And I really respected them.
When I got home, I made my way to my home office and plopped down in my chair, relaxing into it.
I turned on my computer, opened up my email and my heart skipped a beat. The message at the top was from Chase.
The message I’d been waiting on for days.
Adam, I’ve got something good for you. Let me know what you think. If you ask me, it’s your best work yet. God, you’re hot. Xx, Chase
My heart was thumping in my chest as I looked down at the two attachments on the email: two videos.
He’d finally edited them.
And as I sat back and watched them, I knew I was in way too deep.
I was at least following one of Shawn’s rules about fuckboys: I was having a whole lot of fun.
But I was also breaking the other rules like it was my damn job. Because watching these videos didn’t just turn me on all over again—it also gave me that tug of desire, all over again, for Chase. Even the flirty way he’d written the email gripped at my heart strings.
I was just going to have to live with it. Another crush I had to ignore, like I’d had to before.
17
CHASE
I looked out my window to see a sleek black car pull up outside my apartment building.
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath, adjusting my pale blue tie in the mirror one more time.
I’d already video called my brother not once but three times as I was trying on my suit for this fancy dinner. Luckily I owned a tailored suit from a wedding I’d attended last year, but I sure as fuck wasn’t used to wearing one.
I slipped on my dress shoes and made my way down to the street. The shoes clicked on the brick sidewalk as I walked to the black car, where the driver was waiting to open the back door for me.
“Evening,” the driver said. “Chase Blau?”
“That’s me,” I said.
He opened the back door and when I looked inside, Adam was sitting there on the other side of the smooth leather seat.
And it was hard not to literally drool over how fucking good he looked.
God, I was screwed.
Getting into the back of the car with Adam looking like a movie star already had me feeling something I shouldn’t have felt. Unlike me, Adam looked like a natural in his fancy slate-grey suit.
I’d been so good all week. I’d wanted to text Adam every day, but I’d held myself back. I’d wanted to show up at his door each night and beg him to blow me again—or, hell, beg to let me blow him.
But I’d learned long ago that intensity wasn’t always a good thing. He was still the Fixer Brothers’ current client, and I was a professional, even if I had secretly filmed a very unprofessional video with Adam.
So he looks good in a suit.
So his eyes light up when he sees you and it makes you feel all important and special.
Chill the fuck out.
I’d known that Adam, Charlie and I would be sharing one of the black cars Emmett had booked to drive us down to the fancy dinner tonight in Denver, but I hadn’t known if they would be picked up first. For now, at least, it was just me and Adam in the back of the car.
“You’re looking good,” Adam said, giving me a once-over. “That tie matches your eyes perfectly.”
“You look good, too. To say the least,” I told him. The truth was something closer to I want to fucking lick every inch of you and it’s driving me crazy, but I was on good behavior. “I bet you have a lot of those, huh?”