Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47521 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
She laughs. “I feel like you should pass me a note and I should check yes or no.”
“If you’d rather I do that, I can.”
She bites her lip. “Okay, yeah, I like you, you seem like a good guy.”
Encouraged, I ask her, “And do you want to get to know me?”
CHAPTER 11
CASSIE
He has so much hope in his eyes. I know he doesn’t see the problem with this, but I’ve always worried about everything. But I also don’t think I can just tell him no and walk away. I’m more than attracted to him, and I want him like nobody’s business. I’ve never been attracted to a man like I am to him. I honestly didn’t think I was capable of it. I always thought there was something wrong with me. But right now, with me sitting across his lap, I can feel the pull of desire in my loins.
I try to play it off. “Well, Baker, we are family. We probably should get to know each other.”
He shakes his head. “I told you to forget about that. Tell me, Cass. Do you want to know me? The real me?”
I try to push off his lap, but he doesn’t want to let me go. I run my hand along his shoulder. “We need to talk about this, but I can’t do it on your lap. I can barely think straight.”
“Okay, I’ll let you up while we talk, but I’m not letting you go far.”
I laugh as I climb off his lap, and he pulls me onto the seat next to him. “Okay, talk.”
He repeats his question. “Do you want to know me? The real me?”
I fiddle with the hem of my shirt. “Why are you doing this? My mom is married to your dad.” I point between the two of us. “Nothing can come of this.”
He doesn’t realize how hard this is. It’s nearly impossible to keep resisting temptation. It would be different if I didn’t feel anything, but Baker makes me feel so much. Heck, too much. It’s overwhelming.
He grabs on to my hand and holds it like he doesn’t want to let me go. I raise my head and look into his eyes. He’s searching my face, and it feels like a caress. Almost like he’s trying to memorize my features or something. The longer I look into his brown eyes, the harder it is to keep saying no. Impossible really. I look at a frame on the wall above his head, and he knows exactly what I’m doing. “Look at me, Cass.”
I bite my lip and shake my head.
He laughs, puts his hands on each side of my face, and pulls me gently down until I’m looking him in the eye. “From the moment I laid eyes on you, I felt something, Cass. I don’t know how to explain it. I think about you all the time. All I’m asking is for you to give me a chance. Give us a chance.”
Emotion fills me, and I know I can’t deny him. Heck, I don’t want to. “If we do this, we need to keep it between us.”
He doesn’t like it, that much is obvious, and he puts voice to his displeasure, shaking his head. “No, I’m not going to act like we’re doing something wrong and we need to hide it. I want the whole damn town to know we’re together.”
I’ve never known a man to be so vocal. Not ever. He knows what he wants, and he’s not afraid to go for it. But even though I appreciate how possessive he is of me, I know what I should do. “Baker, listen to me. When we break up, I don’t want it to mess with our family. We need to be able to be together without any more pressure than necessary. We need to just see where this goes.”
He shakes his head. “You’re already breaking up with me?”
“I’m not. I’m just saying there’s a really small chance this is going to work out between us, and there’s no sense letting it completely mess up our future family Christmas celebrations or birthdays or anything else. We try this and just see what happens.”
He searches my face, and it’s obvious he wants to argue with me. He blows out a breath. “If that’s the only way I can get you to agree, that's fine. We’ll try it your way. But you need to remember that it was your idea to hide this and keep it a secret, Cass. If it was up to me, everyone would know.”
I clap my hands on my legs. “Okay, so what does this mean? How we going to do it?”
He scoots back on the couch and lies down. “That much is easy. Any free time we have, we’re going to be together. I’m going to date you… well, as much as you’ll let me. I guess with your big ‘secret dating’ idea, we can’t go out in town?”