Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 135604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
“So I guess we’re eating first, then getting to the sex?” I asked, hoisting myself up onto the counter and swinging my legs. “I’m good with that.”
“Depends,” he replied.
I tiled my head. Depends? “On …”
Jamie pivoted around and crossed in front of me to get to the fridge, saying as he went by, “You give up why we’re down here instead of upstairs sleepin’ and I’ll give it to you after we eat. You don’t? We ain’t fuckin’. I ain’t stupid, Legs.”
My eyes bugged. What?
We ain’t fuckin’?
WHAT?
I watched, mouth open, as Jamie took the milk, eggs, and a stick of butter out of the fridge, nudged the door closed with his elbow, and walked back to his work area next to the stove.
“Excuse me?” I asked when he got there.
“I ain’t stupid,” he repeated with his back to me.
“Okay.” I laughed a little and tucked my hair behind my ear. “What’s that got to do with us having sex after we eat?”
After setting everything down, Jamie turned around to face me and braced his hands on either side of him, gripping on to the counter.
“I know how we fuck, Legs,” he began. “You don’t give up shit. But usually that don’t matter ’cause I know what you’re thinkin’ anyway. And straight up, I don’t hate it. That’s our game. Wanna keep doin’ it for as long as we feel like doin’ it. Difference right now is, I ain’t solid on what’s got us down here. I got no fuckin’ clue what’s goin’ through your head.”
“I told you, I just wanted to get a snack.”
“Bullshit,” he shot back, voice growing louder. “Somethin’s got you tense and I wanna know what it is.”
“I’m not tense,” I argued.
“You’re tense, babe.”
“No.” I tipped forward a little. “I’m not. I was just hungry.”
“Tori.”
“I’m not tense!”
“Jesus,” he muttered, shaking his head, then tilting it when he asked, “Do I need to call Sunshine? Get her in on this? Probably catch shit from Dash but fuck it.” His shoulders jerked. “If it’ll get you talkin’…”
I scowled. Damn it. He’d do it, too. And I didn’t want to disturb Syd and Brian. It was the middle of the night, and knowing Syd, she’d most likely start bawling again and keep Brian up.
“I said forever and you didn’t say anything, okay? There.” I huffed out a breath, twisted, and grabbed my bottle of Pure Leaf, unscrewed the lid off the rest of the way—I had only loosened it earlier—and brought the bottle to my lips.
My eyes connected with Jamie’s as I sipped, which, seeing the way his eyes were looking now, his whole face for that matter—gentled, sweet, soul-touching—I got one mouthful down before I was forced to stop sipping for fear I’d suck sweet tea down the wrong pipe.
I knew that look. I’d seen it on Jamie’s face a handful of times now. One of those times being that very night I showed up at his house begging for sex and he promised me I’d never be worrying about Wes again. Another time being in front of the fire before we made love when I told Jamie he was the best man I’d ever known.
I couldn’t sip tea right now. Not with Jamie looking at me like that. Not when I knew the next words out of his mouth were going to hit my soft, sink in deep, and stay there.
“You couldn’t sleep ’cause I didn’t tell you I was with you on that,” he suggested, eyes soft and voice lowered.
I wiped my hand across my mouth, then I nodded my head and lowered my eyes, staring at the label on my bottle.
“Look at me, babe.”
I lifted my eyes again.
“Tense all night. Worryin’ I wasn’t feelin’ you. That wasn’t the case,” Jamie began to explain. “Just came in a woman for the first time. That woman bein’ you. I was processin’ shit. Not three weeks ago you wanted nothin’ to do with me. Now we’re here, you’re talkin’ about forever—”
“I know,” I interrupted him, sighing heavily. See! Never should’ve said it. “I was being stupid, okay? I didn’t—”
“You don’t know,” Jamie shot back, interrupting me this time. “And you weren’t bein’ stupid. You were feelin’ something and you shared it. That happens, no matter what it is you’re tellin’ me, that ain’t you bein’ stupid.”
“Okay,” I said, mouth twitching. That was nice to hear. Still, there was a problem. “But now I’m, like, twenty steps ahead of you,” I pointed out.
He smiled then. What the hell?
“This isn’t funny, Jamie,” I hissed.
“It’s funny, babe,” he returned, reaching up and scratching his jaw. “You thinkin’ you’re ahead of me is fuckin’ hilarious.”
“No, it’s not. It’s embarrassing.”
He smiled bigger.
“Stop smiling!” I snapped.
“Catchin’ up,” he muttered.
I squinted at him, head tilting slightly. “What?”
“You,” he said, hand lowering back down and curling around the counter. “Catchin’ up.”