Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 646(@200wpm)___ 517(@250wpm)___ 431(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 646(@200wpm)___ 517(@250wpm)___ 431(@300wpm)
I was breathless listening to him describe the moment. I'd felt the same way—a jolt of immediate connection I'd never come anywhere near experiencing before. I didn't believe in things like love at first sight, but meeting Jake had proved me wrong. I knew it sounded crazy to call what I felt for him love, but I also knew that's exactly what it was.
"Sure of what?" I asked, my voice sounding a lot like a squeak.
"That you're my one.” He answered simply like it was the easiest thing he'd ever said.
"I felt it too," I admitted.
"I know," he answered with a huge grin. "Our connection is no joke. I saw in your eyes when you looked up at me, and I hoped. When we kissed last night, I knew for sure that we were in this thing together."
“What about you?” he asked. “When was your last serious relationship?”
I felt myself blushing as I bit my lip and looked down at the table. “Never,” I admitted.
“You don’t date?” he asked, his voice relaying his incredulity.
I shook my head and shrugged. “I’ve gone on dates but it’s never gone beyond dinner or the movies. Watching my mother flit from marriage to marriage was tough on me. Caroline’s grandmother was strict—she drilled the importance of education into us. There was no time to date if we wanted to get scholarships. People thought she was too strict but she was one hundred percent right. We both wound up with almost completely full rides to university because we had perfect GPAs.
“We had friends and went to parties in college, but it wasn’t anything wild—it couldn’t be since we were busting ass to keep our grades on point. Caroline married Robert in our sophomore year at the university and I moved in with them. She had to take a leave when she got pregnant with Macon because she had horrible hyperemesis gravidarum.”
My brows pinched together as memories of that year flashed through my memory. “That on top of losing Gigi was too much for her, but I kept plugging away until I got my degree last summer. I never had time for dates, much less a boyfriend. And now that I’m out of school the only adults I see are the mothers and nannies at Macon’s Gymboree classes and my cleaning co-workers,” I joked with an easy smile.
“So…” he hesitated, swallowing as he looked me over. “Baby, are you a virgin?”
The heat on my cheeks told me I was furiously blushing. “Yes.”
He looked absolutely stunned. My nerves went into overdrive with some kind of panic. What if being with a virgin wasn’t something he wanted?
“Does it bother you that I want you to be my first?” I blurted.
I felt sick when the words came out of my mouth, fearing I’d just ruined us before we’d even begun.
“Your only,” he growled, his eyes alight with emotion. “I waited so fucking long for this that I’d lost faith that you were coming. Now I have you and you’re telling me no one else has touched you. I am so fucking far from bothered it’s almost obscene. Thank fuck there’s a table covering me, or Meg would be tossing my ass out for public indecency. You’re giving me everything, Amber. I don’t think I could be happier if I tried.”
I leaned into him, a small sigh escaping me when he met me halfway and kissed me with a raw intensity I felt in every part of my body. Right away, I was lost. Any time his lips touched mine everything else faded away.
The sound of someone chuckling broke us apart.
"You guys making plans for your honeymoon yet?" Meg teased as she set our plates down on the table.
Jake laughed and shook his head. "Haven't gotten around to that yet. Gotta get her to the church first, but once I do…"
Meg grinned. "I don't think that's going to be a problem." The crazy thing was that if he’d asked me right then and there to marry him, I'd have said yes without a lick of hesitation.
We were in our own little world as we ate our pancakes and Jake loved them just as much as I did. As we ate we peppered each other with questions about our past experiences. Jake had traveled a lot more than I had, but we still had many things in common. Things between us were easy, no discomfort or anxiety in sharing things with each other. I loved it and I could tell he did too.
I started to feel sad as we finished, and he went to pay the check because I didn't want to leave him. I should've known instinctively that he was feeling the same way.
"Just double checking—still no baby tomorrow, right?" he asked as he slid back into the booth beside me.