Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
"I'm sorry, baby."
Leigh bit her lip hard to keep it from trembling. His words were just words, and words and its power to deceive, she had always known.
But James' voice...
God.
Its gritty tone and the way emotion roughened the edges of his voice...that was what terrified her more than anything, and Leighton wished desperately she had the power to block its sound out.
But because she didn't—-
"I would've given everything to protect you from experiencing something like that."
She already knew.
"And I know you might not believe me, but I can prove it. Harlene and I were over before I even met you."
It was only a matter of time...
"A part of me had always known she and I weren't right for each other. We've always wanted different things in life, and this morning, I just suddenly felt fucking sick of it. That's why I broke up with her."
Just a matter of time...
"And the moment I saw you, I knew..." James sucked his breath, his chest tightening at the thought of what he was about to say. "I've always believed in destiny, baby. And you can laugh at me all you want, but when I saw you...I knew you were it for me," he said fiercely. "You're my destiny."
Just a matter of time before the tears started falling, and the moment they did—-
"Baby, no..."
Leighton started crying in earnest.
James jerked back, his arms falling away so he could look into her eyes—-
And that was when he saw.
The smile that wobbled over her lips, telling him that she believed him.
Every word he spoke.
She believed it.
Because even though the whole world might think otherwise...
Leighton believed it, too.
She was his destiny, and he was hers.
Sword & Lily
26-year-old Lily was going a-hunting tonight. Discreetly, of course. But unlike before, she was determined to truly make a go for it this time. She was just seriously tired. And irritated. And in despair. It was simply time, Lily told herself, to give up on Sword Rutherford.
It had been years and years and years, but there hadn't even been the tiniest spark to give her hope. Well, okay, to be fair - sparks did fly a lot between them, but only when they were having one of their usual heated arguments. It had always been the case, even back when she was a lowly teenage intern and Sword, at twenty-four, had been spreading himself a little too thin as both a professional quarterback and CEO of a startup mobile gaming company.
Both of them had frequently clashed over game design, with Sword constantly riding on Lily's back because he thought her story frequently lacked emphasis on action and gameplay while Lily thought he was too profit-oriented to appreciate the value of character design and story development.
In the end, however, even Lily could grudgingly admit that the two of them worked well together, and the millions of sales the company earned from every game update was proof of this. This year was likely to be their biggest one yet, with Ball World estimated to cross the $1B mark by the end of the quarter.
And while she was genuinely happy for Sword, herself, and the rest of their team...
It was time, Lily thought mulishly, to have a life outside the company.
Come hell or high water, Lily was determined to find herself a man who'd make her forget she was ever in love with an ex-quarterback named Sword Rutherford.
And for that to happen...
Lily marched inside a fancy boutique for designer dresses for the first time in her life. The amount of girly things around her was intimidating, but she managed to strengthen her resolve and started browsing through its impressive collection of cocktail dresses and long gowns.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
One was too short, another was too pink, and the third one was too low she might as well have been wearing nothing above the waist—-aha!
Upon finally finding something suitable, Lily grabbed the dress from the rack and headed to the row of dressing rooms at the back of the shop. Since the hallway itself had its own mirror, Lily simply stood in front of it and held the dress against her body to study her reflection. Wanting to see how it would look from the side, Lily started to turn around...and that was when she saw another girl stumbled out of the occupied dressing room, followed by a man Lily immediately recognized as James Winterbourne, golf's currently hottest commodity.
Leighton let out a mortified gasp when she realized she had just been caught in flagrante delicto, but James, having realized the same thing by the way the other girl was looking at them, had no trouble taking things by stride.
"Lily Drake, isn't it?" James curved an arm around Leighton's waist and pressed a quick kiss on the top of her head. "This is my girlfriend, Leighton Gibbs."
Leighton wanted to die by now. They knew each other? And what if this other girl was—-