Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
It was already late, and he knew there was a chance she’d be asleep. He often kept her awake, but sometimes when it got too late, she’d end up falling asleep curled up against him. At first, Road hadn’t liked that. Women didn’t curl up against him and go to sleep. They got the hell away from him, and tried to keep a wide berth. That was what he was used to.
Dinah was different. Her trust in him that she kept showing never failed to surprise him. Road knew he was playing a dangerous game, because Dinah was becoming important to him. He knew that, but he also knew he had a secret—the secret that would make her hate him forever. If she knew what he’d ordered done to her mother, she would never forgive him. Before he could stop himself, he’d arrived at her front door and knocked as well as rang the bell.
Seconds passed.
Road knew he was playing with fire here. He should back away because he and Dinah were never gong to make this work. The odds were already highly stacked against them.
Just as he was about to turn away, the door suddenly opened.
“Road, what are you doing here?” Dinah asked.
He turned to see her wrapping her robe around her. She looked tired, and he knew he must have woken her up.
“Sorry, I, uh, I just got back from a job, and you know how it goes. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You want a place to crash?” she asked, sounding adorably sleepy as she did.
“Yeah.”
He expected her to tell him to fuck off. To go back to his clubhouse and sleep it off there.
Instead, she stepped back. “Come on in,” she said.
Chapter Six
“Nah, no woman would do that,” Dinah said.
“What?”
“Argue for a man, or beg to have a man choose her.” She and Road had been arguing now for at least an hour over the unrealistic representation of … love within movies and television. Even as she stared across the room at Road, she couldn’t believe they were having this debate.
“Ah, but you think it would be perfectly acceptable when it’s the other way around?” he asked.
“No, I don’t. For me, it feels a little tacky.”
“Come on, you cannot tell me you wouldn’t love the idea of two or more men fighting for you?”
She sighed and grabbed her bowl of ice cream, walking it back into the kitchen. Dinah had lost count of the number of these dates they had enjoyed. It felt like every time she got off work, Road was at her home, or her work, waiting to spend time with her. She couldn’t recall the last time she was alone, not that it was a problem.
Since her mother died, she had been quite lonely. She’d always found it hard to make friends, because after her mother’s attack, she hadn’t trusted anyone.
Road was the first person she kind of trusted, and that had come with him threatening her. Now, that seemed like such an odd night to her. She felt so comfortable with him, which again was why she’d opened the spare bedroom for him to use to crash on the nights it got too late for him to go home.
“More than one guy chasing me? Hell, yeah, I would hate it.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Hate it. That for me is not true love. Going on different dates with different guys, trying to remember stuff, and being pulled left, right, and center. To me, that sucks. In a big way.” She shook her head. “No, I refuse to think that. Love shouldn’t be about competition. It should be acceptance, and going out of your way to be with a person.”
“Have you dated a lot?” he asked.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m just curious if you’ve dated.”
“It doesn’t matter if I’ve dated.” She walked into the kitchen, not liking the way the conversation was going. This was supposed to be friendly banter, talking about movies and television shows, or more specifically, the storylines. Not about her own personal experiences with love.
“Oh, come on. You sound like you know a thing or two. Have there been multiple guys attempting to win your affection?” he asked.
She put her bowl in the sink and spun around. “Stop mocking me.”
“I’m not mocking you.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“I’m curious, that is all. You sound like you know a thing or two when it comes to … you know, the male mind and dating multiple men. I only know it from the perspective of dating women.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Have you been part of a competition to win a woman’s affection?” she asked.
“No, I wouldn’t do that shit. If a woman can’t choose me, then so be it. I’m a guy. It’s different for us. Tell me about yours.”