Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 199(@250wpm)___ 166(@300wpm)
“Son of a bitch,” Rush growled, but he didn’t make a move to stop me.
“Well, the good news is it’s not broken,” I said.
“What’s the bad news?” Rush said, his head rolling enough so he could look at me. Despite the injury, he didn’t actually seem all that upset. In fact, one of his hands lifted to cradle my hip as I held there on all fours with my face just inches from his.
“The bad news is you didn’t break anything of mine, so I’m not going to get another antique out of this.”
It took Rush a second to process my words, and then he burst out laughing.
“Ow, shit, that hurts,” he moaned as he grabbed his nose.
“Let’s get some ice on it,” I said. I began to lift off him, but that hand on my hip tightened. I got the silent message and stayed put.
Rush’s eyes grew serious. “Why were you running?” he asked. His hand moved from my hip to my face. He brushed some stray hair behind my ear as his eyes pinned mine.
“You didn’t take any clothes,” I admitted, my cheeks heating.
“What?” Rush said with a shake of his head.
“At the hotel, you didn’t grab a change of clothes or a toothbrush or…” I let the words die off as I considered how ridiculous I’d acted.
“So you thought I wasn’t going to stay with you tonight,” Rush murmured. “So while you were spending the entire ride home upset about me leaving, I was trying to figure out how to convince you to let me spend the night with you again.”
“What?” I asked in surprise. “You… you want to stay tonight?”
“For starters,” Rush said. Then in one graceful move, he rolled our bodies so I was beneath him on the cool grass. Rush turned his head so he could wipe the majority of the already drying blood on his sleeve. “Did I get enough off?” he asked.
I didn’t need to wonder why he wanted to know that. I already knew. I answered him by pulling him down and brushing my lips over his. I was mindful of his injury and kept the kiss soft. He returned the kiss with the same level of sweetness. It wasn’t until someone discreetly coughed nearby that we both remembered where we were.
I was horrified to see three older women standing not more than two feet from us. I put them in their late thirties, early forties. One of them was holding what looked like some kind of wicker basket, another had a covered cake pan, and the third was carrying a bottle of wine.
“Oh, God,” I said as I tried to push Rush off me.
“Ladies,” Rush said in amusement as he made a big production of climbing to his feet and then pulling me up against him.
There was no missing the women’s responses as they eyed Rush up and down. I was the one who had to cough to get their attention so they’d stop ogling my guy.
My guy? What the hell?
“Oh, um, good evening,” the woman in the middle said. “We’re the official welcoming committee,” she added. “I’m Margie, and this is Amanda, and that’s Theresa.” She pointed at the other two women as she introduced them. “Is one of you the homeowner?”
“Um, yeah, that’s me,” I said. I felt like my cheeks were on fire. So much for living unnoticed in the neighborhood. I’d be lucky if there weren’t religious zealots pounding on my door within the hour to tell me I was going to hell.
“This is Christopher,” Rush said. “And I’m his boyfriend, Rush.”
I nearly swallowed my tongue when he said boyfriend.
“Oh,” Margie responded, though admittedly it sounded like she was more interested than disgusted. I didn’t see any kind of judgment in the expressions of the other two women either.
“Oh my, are you all right?” Theresa asked Rush as she motioned to his nose.
“Oh yeah, this one doesn’t know his own strength,” he said as he gave me a little half hug. “He thought he saw a mosquito on my face, and well…” Rush tipped his head and motioned to his nose.
“No, I—”
“Is that a merlot?” Rush asked Amanda, who was holding the bottle of wine.
“Why, yes, it is. It’s one of my husband’s and my favorite vintages. We hope you enjoy it.”
“And this is just a little basket of goodies from some of the different small businesses in the area,” Margie added. “But the real treat is Theresa’s homemade Lemon Surprise cake.”
Theresa lifted the cake cover off to reveal a gorgeous layer cake with white frosting and yellow shavings along with a few lemon slices.
“Wow,” Rush and I said in unison.
“Anyway, we don’t want to keep you,” Margie said with a sly smile as she handed me the basket and the wine. Rush was given the cake.