Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Unfortunately, it appeared they were the only two people who would receive his love. I swallowed the sadness that rose when I remembered his words from the other night.
You deserve exactly what you told me you wanted earlier. A man who can love you like I love my wife. That man can’t be me.
Oh, how I wish it could be him. He was everything a woman could want in a man. But he’d been clear about where he stood when it came to relationships. Sex or not, he wouldn’t be able to love me. All I’d have is the one lovely night when then he showed me just how pleasurable it could be between a man and a woman.
I’d already played that encounter over and over in my head since the moment he left. Remembering the way his hands on my body sent electric shocks through me, lighting me up. The friction as he moved in and out of me, each stroke coiling the tension inside me until I exploded.
I looked over at Lily and realized that the same touch and intimacy with his wife made Lily. What a miracle that love could produce such a wonderful gift. I longed to be able to have all that. I wanted it with Blake. I wished he’d be able to make room for me. Not that he had to stop loving his wife or forget her, but to open his heart to allow someone else to love him, and to love me back.
That was a fairytale. I’d known it wasn’t something that would become true before he took me to dinner, and having sex with him wouldn’t change that.
So now I was back to my regular life; work, binge-watching TV, and lusting for my boss. At least now I had a new scenario to play in my head during lonely nights or in my tub when I needed the pop of sexual release. Not that it was as good as the real thing. Nothing was as good at the real thing.
Pushing the fantasy out of my head, I turned my attention back to Lily.
“You know what your work needs is a spreadsheet.” I pulled out a piece of paper and drew lines for rows and columns.
“What’s that?” Lily studied the grid I made on the paper.
“It’s how businesses track their numbers, like how much money they’re making and spending, or how many lipsticks they’ve sold.”
“I want to do that.” Lily bounced with excitement in her chair.
I pushed the paper toward her. “What do you want to track?”
She put the pen to her lips and turned her eyes up in thought. Finally, she turned to me. “Cookies.”
I laughed. “It is important to track cookies.” I worked with her to set up her spreadsheet, and she added numbers. It would make little sense to anyone but her, but she was enjoying it.
“What’s going on in here?” Blake’s voice broke me from my reverie. I looked up to see he wasn’t alone. A casually but well-dressed woman in her sixties with short silver hair came in with him.
“Papa, Grandma. I’m doing a sped-sheet.”
Grandma. That must be Joanna’s mother. Suddenly, I felt like I should leave. What would she think if she knew I’d had sex with her daughter’s husband?
“No kidding?” Blake came and stood behind Lily. I was close enough to smell his cologne and feel the heat of his body. Cripes, if I wasn’t careful, I’d swoon and give it all away.
“Ms. Hanson, this is my mother-in-law, Patsy Lockwood. Patsy, this is my executive assistant, Bella Hanson.”
Patsy smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” I said, standing to shake her hand and get out of their way.
“Papa.”
He looked at me and whispered, “Papa?”
Lily tugged on his coat. “These are cookies and jemapple Lily.”
He cocked his head looking at her and then to me. “Okay.”
“It’s French, papa.”
“Ah.” He smiled. “You two aren’t conspiring to have a secret conversation that I can’t understand, are you?” He turned to Patsy. “Ms. Hanson here is fluent in French.”
“So, you must be helping Blake open up the market in France,” Patsy said.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Joanna would have loved that. She loved Paris.” Her expression was a mixture of sadness and wistfulness.
My gut clenched, and if I wasn’t mistaken, so did Blake’s. I saw him flinch and his jaw tightened.
“We need to order more cookies, papa.” Lily tapped her spreadsheet with her pen.
He bent over and kissed her on the head. “I’ll get right on that, Lilybug. But now, your grandma is here to take you home.”
“Aw. I like it here.”
“I know you do, but Ms. Hanson has other work she needs to get to.”
“Can I come do sped-sheets again?” She looked up at me with her big gray eyes.
“Of course. We need to inventory the ice cream.”
“Thank you, Ms. Hanson, for watching her.” Blake’s eyes were warm, but I could still see guilt and regret in them.