Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
I opened my mouth wide and Bella slid the fork in smoothly, smiling with satisfaction as the spicy and tangy sweet sauce hit my tongue. “Mmmm, yeah, that’s nice.”
“Told ya.” She smirked and went back to her food.
I dug into my own lobster and crayfish mac & cheese and promptly made the same sounds as Bella. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she insisted. “It’s sexy when a man enjoys his meal. Especially one who spends his work days half naked.”
“Shirtless,” I shot back with a smile. “There’s a difference.”
Bella shook her head. “Your top half is naked, which makes you half naked.” She laughed again at my dismayed look. “It’s all right, I wish I could eat like you do and still look good without a shirt.”
“Mission accomplished,” I told her as I leaned across the table and stole another forkful of pulled pork. “You look beautiful without a shirt. Without a dress. In nothing at all.”
“Excuse me. I’m sorry to interrupt, but you’re Derek Gregory, aren’t you? Of The Gregory Brothers?” Before I could answer the woman smiled and shoved her tits in my face. “Can you sign my shirt, pretty please?”
My gaze darted to Bella, she just looked at me with an amused smirk, and then back to the woman. The old Derek, before Bella, would have happily scrawled his signature across the fullest, meatiest part of her chest. But now there was Bella, and I didn’t want to give her any reason to doubt me, so I reached for the bottom hem of the shirt, accepted the black marker and scribbled my name across the pale pink fabric. “There ya go, sweetheart.”
Her shoulders sank in disappointment. “Thanks.” She slid an angry look at Bella and then back to me. “It was really great to meet you.”
When the woman was long gone Bella laughed. “Poor woman. She must not know you’re spoken for.”
I shrugged. “My real fans would know.” And according to social media, they were all thrilled for me and Bella. Just as Brody had predicted, it gave them hope they would have a shot with me someday, while they were simultaneously making wedding plans for me and Bella. It didn’t make any real sense, but para-social relationships never did.
“So you have real fans, people who love the music and those just looking to bang a hot, rich celebrity?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
Bella tilted her head to one side and smiled. “Sorry to cramp your style.”
“Don’t be. I’d rather sleep with a woman who likes me for me than all that other stuff. Except being hot, I like that you think I’m hot.”
She blinked. “Who said that?”
“You did,” I told her and leaned in close. “You called me a hot, rich celebrity.”
“Did I?”
I nodded.
“Well, then…” A long, tense silence passed between us until our plates were empty and I couldn’t help but smile at how something like social media exile could have ended up like this.
The server stopped at our table with a grin. “Can I interest you folks in dessert? We have an incredible lava cake with a chocolate and caramel center, and the most amazing brownie a la mode, which is my personal favorite.” He looked to me first and then sent a lingering look in Bella’s direction.
She smiled up at the server and his cheeks turned a deep, dark shade of red. “I think we’ll have one of each. To go, please.”
I blinked as disappointment filled my chest. “To go?” Did that mean the date was over?
Bella nodded. “Yes. We can eat it after you give me the ten cents tour of your Nashville home. And christen a room or two.”
My heart stopped in my chest at her words, at the implication in them. I sat back, wiped my mouth and dropped my napkin on top of the empty plate. “Surely we can do better than a room or two?”
Bella sucked in a shaky breath and grinned. “There’s only one way to find out.”
As soon as the check arrived at the table, along with our desserts to go, I paid and left a hefty tip before I tugged Bella’s hand towards the elevator.
She laughed inside the elevator car. “Eager, much?”
I nodded. “To lay you across my big California King bed and slowly undress you? To taste every inch of you, making you come over and over until you beg me to stop? Very fucking eager, Bella.”
Her pupils dilated, and that little pulse behind the delicate strip of skin at the base of her throat beat a steady drum of desire as the elevator descended to the street. The doors slid open and Bella blinked and reached out to take my hand. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Chapter 27
Bella
“You have a certain glow about you,” Mom said when I entered the kitchen. “Must have been a good date since you stayed overnight.”