Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
What we’ve just done has snapped the circle together with a finality I can feel in my bones—and I’m pretty sure I no longer have a choice but to exist in the center of it, trusting hope to outweigh my fear. Hoping that against all odds, the circle stays intact.
Chapter Eighteen
I’m still in an orgasmic haze when we reach my apartment.
Tobias drove to Jersey for the match this afternoon, so I have the pleasure of skipping the train and riding in his silver Audi, the interior of which smells like new leather and vanilla. We weren’t able to speak much to Banks after the game, but we waved to him as he followed his team onto their idling bus, earning Tobias a very professional nod—and me, a distinctly promissory one. It was more than a nod vowing to please me later, it was a nod telling me much more. That he has something to speak to me about. Share with me.
And I’m guessing, hoping, that I know what it is.
I catch sight of myself in the glass of my building door, shocked to find that I’m smiling ear to ear. I can’t remember the last time I felt free and buoyant enough to smile this broadly. Unforced. One third of the reason stands behind me while I unlock the main entrance, his hands molding shamelessly to my butt.
“You’re not allowed inside, Tobias.”
“Your bum?” he asks, sounding hilariously dejected.
“My apartment.”
“Oh, thank God.” A beat passes. “Hang on. Why not?”
“I’m renting a room from Shayna and those are her rules. No men allowed.”
Tobias is pensive. Then, “I like this rule until it applies to me.”
“That is the very hallmark of being a man.”
He’s very still for a moment. “My God, that’s eye-opening.”
I have the fierce urge to giggle, so I turn the key extra hard in the door to combat the sound. “You can walk me to the hallway, then it’s bye-bye. You have to return to your awful penthouse overlooking the city.”
“Pack a bag and come with me,” he says, following me up the stairs. “We can order sashimi and play naked Twister.”
“That is weirdly specific. I’m more of a trivia and nachos girl.”
“We can do that, too. I’ve never had nachos.”
I come to a halt at the top of the stairs, slowly turning around. “You’ve never had nachos?”
“Show me what I’m missing, Elise.” He stops on the stair below me, making us almost eye level, his attention dipping to my mouth and heating. “I’ll even let you bring the other two wankers, as long as they promise not to touch my Jean Louis David volumizer.”
“What is that? By the way, I already regret asking.”
“It’s the styling mousse I have shipped from France. Banks will use it just to fuck with me and Gabe will probably mistake it for whipped cream.”
My lips wobble with the need to smile, but I do my best to keep a stern expression. “Stop pretending like you don’t like Gabe and Banks.”
“We share a common obsession.” He reaches out and frames my jaw, brushing his thumb right to left across the seam of my mouth. “Hard not to feel a sense of camaraderie when there is one girl wrapping herself around our collective throats.”
A tingle swims through me, all the way to the ends of my hair follicles. “Maybe I’m just waiting for the right moment to squeeze the life out of you.”
“You did exactly that back on the roof, love.” He climbs the remaining stair and backs me across the landing, his hard body coming up against mine in a slow, firm press that has every nerve ending inside of me shooting sparks. “More, please,” he growls into my neck.
I push him off before I get taken under, surprised by the…authority I’m feeling. And the welcome sense of obligation. “No. Next time, everyone will be there. Together.” I shake my head, trying to come up with the words to explain the shift that has been taking place inside of me since meeting these three. “We were together today—alone—and…I loved it. Really loved it. But there is a balance that has to be restored now. That’s up to me, I think.” I study Tobias’s face for a reaction. “I don’t know if I’m making any sense.”
“You are.” Serious now, he slips his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Hesitates to speak. Then, “Even I have been feeling…anxious to get everyone back on an even surface since we made love. And I’m a classic narcissist.”
“No you’re not,” I say on a burst of laughter. “Who told you that?”
“Everyone I’ve ever met.”
I take the remaining steps to my apartment door and insert the key, pushing open the door, “Well, give them my number so I can—”
My heart drops like a boulder.
The apartment is in disarray.
Books are everywhere, possessions from both rooms tossed on the floor, even food from the kitchen cabinets is smeared in places, scattered in others.