Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 145634 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 728(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145634 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 728(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Her eyes drop to her cocktail before they meet my gaze again and she answers, “I got a job here… I think I’m staying.”
Before I can say anything, she cuts me off. “Can I ask you something?”
Giving her a nod, I stare into her beautiful eyes, riddled with pain I need to erase.
“Are you angry at me? Brett and Ryan…” she breathes out deeply, looking away and pushing the hair out of her face before adding, “they said you wouldn’t be angry or upset if you saw me, but I… I know we didn’t leave things off… in a friendly way.”
“I’m feeling a lot right now, but neither of those things. I missed you, Soph.”
I hold her gaze for as long as I can, making sure she feels it. This well of emotion I feel inside of me. “I’m not angry,” I add and stop myself from telling her that I’m hurting. I’ve been hurting since the day she left.
“You need a place to crash?” I ask her, changing the subject as quickly as I can, and she lets out a small laugh at my question.
Pushing her hair back, she lets a sweet smile play at her lips and says, “Sorry, Ryan bought us shots and I think mine’s hitting me now.”
The air shifts between us. It’s easier, less tense, and I fucking love it.
“I don’t need a place to crash… I finally got one of those, you know?” Her voice is even, but there’s a hint of the playfulness she used to give me back then. In the very beginning of it all. Back to a place I wish we could go.
“I heard you were staying with Brett’s sister, but I didn’t know about New York?” I don’t know how my voice is so level. How everything is so calm on the surface.
She hesitates, as if she doesn’t want to tell me. I know she isn’t with someone else. I’ll fucking kill Brett if she is. He told me he’d let me know. Trish tells him every single thing. My expression must’ve slipped because when Sophie looks up at me she shakes her head slightly, answering my unspoken question.
She’s quick to place her small hand over mine, comforting me. She always did that. Even if she didn’t do it on purpose, it’s just a piece of who she is. Having just that little touch makes me miss her even more. Even though she’s right here. I still need her to be mine again.
Electricity flows through me and it takes everything in me not to flip my hand over and keep her skin next to mine when she takes her hand away, telling me she got a dream job and they’re paying for her place.
“SoHo too,” she adds, and then shrugs. “It’s a little fancy, but I just have to add my touches to it.” I can hear the pride in her voice.
She’s staying in SoHo. Some of the tension leaves my body. She’s in a safe area, and she’s back for good.
“Like this place. It’s all fancy and chic in this area, but I like it.”
“You like the bar?” I ask her as I roll up the sleeves of my button-down shirt. My forearms flex as I tuck the cuff links into my pocket and then order us a round. Whiskey for me, and another of what she’s drinking for her.
Sophie nods sheepishly, her confidence slipping as the drinks land in front of us.
“You look good in this bar,” I tell her, holding her gaze and watching how she can’t help but to smile. When her teeth sink into her bottom lip, I know I’ve gotten to her, at least a little.
“So do you, in your suit and all. A little better than my hoodie, don’t you think?”
“You can wear whatever you want... or nothing at all.”
She laughs as I sip my whiskey. “I think the owners might have a problem with that.”
My cock is stiff as I imagine her lying on this bar right now. Naked and bared to me in the late night with the doors locked. New York never sleeps, but I’d kick everyone out and let them fade away on the streets as I fucked her right here, watching her hair spread across the bar as she screamed out my name with every thrust.
“I wouldn’t mind it,” I tell her, not hiding the desire in my voice. She’d do it too. The old her would do it, strip down right here. As long as I turned the lights off. We’d still be able to see the lit streets behind us, but they wouldn’t be able to see all the way back here. I’d fuck her hard enough for them to hear her though.
“You’re bad,” she tells me, but that flirtatious smile is still there. That tension between us rises higher and higher as we slip back into old habits.