Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 31942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 160(@200wpm)___ 128(@250wpm)___ 106(@300wpm)
Brody
She touched me. Hugged me, like it wasn’t a big deal. The last thing I expected when I told Charlie was comfort. I figured she’d finally walk away but she’s still looking up at me like I’m a rockstar. I wonder what it’d be like to get that look from her in bed. To sink between her sweet thighs and spend hours discovering every possible way to make her come.
By the time we hike back to my place, the sun is high in the sky and sweat is dripping down my back. The makeshift bandage that I applied to her arm is holding well. She brushes her hair from her eyes. “I’m so sweaty. Think this will hold for me to take a shower?”
If I thought the sight of sweaty Charlie was a turn-on, it’s nothing for what the fantasy of showering Charlie does for me. Fuck, is there anything this woman could do that I wouldn’t find hot as hell?
I nod because I know if I say anything, it’s just going to turn into a proposition. It doesn’t matter if she’s OK with what I am. I’m still not going to go after my best friend’s little sister.
While she showers in the guest bathroom, I take a quick one in my bathroom. It’s cold and it’s what I need to talk common sense back into myself. If everything goes according to my plan, she’ll be out of here soon. I can hang on until then.
As soon as I’m out, I throw some vegetables and a hunk of beef in my pressure cooker. Usually, I’m cooking for just one. But there’s something nice about having two to cook for. Who the hell am I kidding?
I like the idea of cooking for Charlie. I like getting to take care of her and provide for her. I wonder what it’d be like to have her around all the time, to have her in my home. I could set up a workspace in my office so she could edit her videos. Hell, I could follow her around as she recorded. Lovesick fool.
To distract myself from the thoughts I have no business thinking, I reach for the kitchen speakers and load up a playlist from my phone. Some up-tempo song about heartbreak starts playing and I snort. At least, today has a theme.
It only takes me a few minutes to mix the ingredients for brownies and put them in the oven. I’ve just finished when Charlie appears, fresh from the shower. Her face is makeup free and her long hair is hanging around her shoulders.
She smells like something floral and exotic. Sierra must have loaned her some fancy shampoo that women use. Except she doesn’t smell like my friend’s wife. She smells like she belongs to me. I want nothing more than to gather her in my arms and sniff her hair. But that would be weird for her brother’s best friend to do.
She grins up at me, her bare feet stick out from under her long plaid PJ bottoms. Her top is a black tank top that’s skintight. Just the slightest bit of red bra strap peeks out from beneath it. She looks cute even all covered up. She beams at me. “You remembered my chocolate obsession.”
“I like brownies now,” I say and instantly wish I hadn’t. I don’t know why I have to be like this around her. But what’s the point in putting it all out there anyway? There’s no way in hell she wants me. Not after today’s confession.
We’re not a couple, and we never will be. Those aren’t just words she needs to remember, I need them too.
Her expression falls. “Well, what can I do to help?”
“I have it all under control.” I wish that were the truth. I wish I could keep my heart and body under control around her. But she has this hold over me, fills me with this desire to break all of my carefully held rules.
“You could put on coffee,” I finally offer as a truce. I have one of those old machines that brews twelve cups at a time. I chain drink the stuff at night when I’m staying up late and ferreting out the cyber criminals. It beats lying in bed alone and imagining Charlie were beside me.
There’s a reason I’ve never let myself look her up on social media. Just watching her videos last night was incredible. I could see all of the things I love about her personality. How bubbly she is. How expressive her face is when she enjoys something. How her enthusiasm for life is so damn contagious.
She has so much love and light. They flow from her and I want them around me constantly. I want to bask in her light, but then what if I extinguished it? What if I were the reason that one day she couldn’t shine anymore? I couldn’t live with myself if I dimmed her joy. So I’ll keep living in the shadows and stealing glimpses of the woman who is my sunshine. Yeah, it hurts like hell. But it’s better for her and in the end, that’s all that matters to me—what’s good for my sweet Charlie.