Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Of course, Lizzy had to open the door right at that moment. Her jaw dropped at the sight of him lying there, dick in hand, and twin flags of furious color streaked across her cheeks.
“Seriously?” she huffed, her voice high and pitchy with outrage. “This is c-creepy, even for you, Gideon.”
Even for him? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Did she think he was some kind of pervert or something?
Whatever…
The indignation and pinched offense on her boringly pretty features did the job as effectively as a douse of ice-cold water would have. His dick deflated almost instantly.
“Residual horniness after last night’s debauchery,” he said with a dismissive shrug and released his grip so that she could see his now proudly limp cock. For some reason her flush deepened and he rolled his eyes.
There was just no winning with some.
“Rest assured,” he said, pushing himself out of bed to stretch and yawn, before gifting her with his most dismissive smirk. “All I needed was to see you in the light of day for reality to sink in…last night was an anomaly. You were crying, I felt sorry for you. I wanted to make you feel better. Trust me, it won’t happen again.”
There was a short silence. She often paused before speaking, as if she were carefully weighing exactly what she wanted to say.
When it finally came, her response was slow, measured, and devastating. “Damned right it won’t. I don’t make a habit of sleeping with freeloaders who live off the charity of others.”
Despite his best intentions, her words rubbed him raw and he bristled with dislike. She knew next to nothing about him, had never bothered to learn anything about him, and had always looked down her snooty nose at him. But her words hit him where it hurt. Desperation had forced him to accept Cam’s offer to live and work from this place. Gideon had been out of viable options.
The only other choices that had been left to him were avenues he’d long ago decided never to use. He wasn’t quite ready to betray his principles yet. Or go crawling hat-in-hand and pride in pocket to his father. If not for Cam, Gideon may well have been forced to concede defeat. For now, he still had options. Limited thought they were.
But God damn Elizabeth Finch for knowing exactly how deep to cut him with her sharp tongue.
“Get the fuck out.” He didn’t bother to conceal his dislike of her from his voice or face.
Usually he wouldn’t have shown her how much her words bothered him. But right now, he had precisely zero fucks to give. While Gideon may be practically living off his best friend’s charity at the moment, he still had his pride, and this was his space. He didn’t need some neurotic, irritating, wannabe spinster fucking with his mojo.
Her eyelids flickered, as if his demand for her to leave had surprised her. He could understand why. Ordinarily he’d return her insult with something even more acerbic, and she would parry with something exasperating. That was their way.
But that dig, so soon after he had been buried balls deep in her sweet, tight little pussy, had hit its target. He felt naked and exposed, in more ways than one, and he needed her gone.
Right now.
“G-Gid—”
“I said leave,” he snarled, and she jumped. She was back in the stupidly flirty dress she’d been wearing last night. Shell pink, strappy, with a floaty skirt that ended just below her luscious arse. That dress had played a big part in his downfall last night.
He shook his head, wanting banish all thoughts of last night from his brain. But it was there, imprinted into his psyche for all of posterity.
Fuck.
Her stubborn little chin lifted. A familiar gesture. He’d seen it a thousand times before and, as always, it irritated the ever-loving shit out of him.
“You don’t have to be rude. It’s not like I’m happy about this either.”
“Then why the hell are you still here?”
He was being a prick, he knew that. He didn’t usually treat women so… shabbily after having sex with them. This wasn’t just any woman though. This woman despised him and as such, Gideon didn’t feel the slightest need to end this debacle on any kind of friendly note.
“I’m going but—”
“No buts, Lizzy. Just leave.”
“But,” she persisted and he refrained from rolling his eyes at her unsurprising stubbornness. “If you find my glasses, leave them on my porch table.”
Oh.
He cast a sweeping glance around the room and couldn’t immediately spot her glasses amid the mess they had made. Christ, seeing the state the room was in—and remembering how it had gotten that way—sent a telltale tingle of arousal to his balls. If he didn’t get her out of here soon, he’d once again be waving a meat flag with her name on it. He didn’t want her to see his reaction to her. It was just physical. His cock didn’t do his thinking for him… usually.