Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“And you, Nick?” I ask. “Will you fuck someone else?”
“Sweetheart. You have my full attention, and not only do I want no one else, I want all of you and I’m not going to settle for any less.”
I’m not sure what he means by this. All of me. And I don’t ask, because he can’t have all of me. Which is why this should be the end. But when he kisses me, I’m alive. When he touches me, I’m on fire. When he’s with me, I’m not alone, even though I would be with anyone else. So when he says, “Hard limit, Faith. Only us,” I don’t push him away, and I don’t push back. I live dangerously. I say, “Hard limit. Only us.”
And just like that, Nick has proven I was right about him from the beginning. He is dark lust. He is all-consuming. He is an escape I crave. Maybe he’s even an obsession, as he’d called me. But more so, he is dangerous. I sense it. I feel it like I feel this man in every part of me, inside and out.
But then, so am I.
Chapter Twenty
Faith
Nick packs up his work and most of my documents, and we head to the winery with the intent of having lunch there and reviewing his legal plan with the bank. And now, sitting in the passenger seat of his car, I am aware of this man next to me in ways I have never been aware of another man. It’s not about looking at him and being aroused. Or looking at him and thinking about how sexy he is. It’s about how I feel him inside and out. The way I know him beyond logic and reason. And maybe that means things are going too fast, but to where? We agreed. No love. No forever. This is just “us,” and “us” makes me feel something that isn’t guilt and pain. And I need that. I guess that means I need him, and that’s a terrifying thought, to need someone else. My father needed my mother, and that made him a fool.
“What are you going to do about Josh?” Nick asks.
I breathe out. “Have a heart-to-heart with him.”
“You can’t reason with a man who’s thinking with his dick, sweetheart.”
“I really hope you’re wrong about his feelings for me, but even if you’re not, he kept me on despite Macom telling him to drop me, and he placed my work when I was doing nothing to support it myself. No agent would have done that.”
He glances over at me. “Macom told him to drop you?”
“Yes,” I say. “I learned that he’s all about an eye for an eye. I left him. It wounded his ego. He lashed out. And as much money as he makes Josh, Josh had the courage to tell him that professional and personal are two different things. I’d like to think that’s about my work, not some personal agenda.”
“Your work is exceptional, Faith,” Nick says. “And any inference you took from my evaluation of Josh’s interest in you otherwise was not intended. I also know his reputation. He’s a good agent, but he’s a good agent acting badly. He indirectly threatened you today when he said he’d cancel your appearance in the forum, and he did so because I was at your house.”
“You’re right. He did, but he deserves to have me talk to him, not drop him right when I might find some success that he helped create. Like I said, and this is big: that man kept me on and helped place my work when I was doing nothing to support that work.”
He turns us into the winery property and glances over at me again. “Loyalty is a good quality, but once a man is in the place he’s in with a woman, there’s no room for delicate conversation. My advice that you didn’t ask for: be frank.”
“You say this like it’s from experience.”
“I’ve never been shameless over a woman. Ever. But as I said. Love and hate wear a fine line, and I’ve fought many a battle in court over that line.”
“Noted, counselor,” I say. “Be direct. I really don’t have a problem with direct.”
He gives me a sexy half smile. “And yet you’re damn good at talking in circles. You would have been a hell of an opponent in court.”
“Oh no,” I say. “I hate the spotlight. I would have hated the way people would stare at me and be hanging on my words.”
“And yet your art puts you in the spotlight.”
“My art is the spotlight,” I say. “And that’s how I like it.” He turns us into the drive of the mansion. “And speaking of the spotlight. Because I’ve never brought a man here, everyone is going to be talking about the two of us.”