Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67675 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
In the car on the way home, I reached over and tried to intertwine my fingers with Landon’s. He squeezed briefly, then put his hand on the wheel. Two and ten. More than once, his gaze flicked to the rearview mirror where I knew he had a view of Emma. Her head was slumped against the side of her car seat, her chest rising and falling behind the five-point harness.
“I had fun tonight,” I whispered, putting my hand on his thigh instead. The muscle tensed, and he sent me a warning sideways glance.
“No funny stuff while I’m driving, Cami. We’ve got precious cargo.”
“I guess I can wait until we get back home.”
Another sideways look, this one glimmering with speculation. “I’ll drive faster.”
He didn’t though. I could have slid the straps of my tank top off my shoulders and sat next to him topless and he wouldn’t have gone even a mile over the speed limit, not with Emma in the backseat. It made my heart ache with love for him–and squirm with impatience. Surely, he could go the standard five miles over the speed limit that everyone went so we could get Emma to bed and then ourselves into his bed. I couldn’t wait to slide in between the cool, silky sheets and find his hot, hard naked body against mine.
“Cami,” Landon warned again, and I pulled my hand away.
“I like your friends,” I murmured, trying to distract myself from what was waiting for us.
“They like you, too. Con always did.”
That was nice to hear. I’d never gotten a feeling one way or another what his friends thought of me. We hadn’t spent much time together. Before tonight, I’d grouped Con with Landon’s three other closest friends and thought of them as a male monolith. All tall, successful, good-looking men who moved with unnerving confidence and exuded power, both in the boardroom and, I imagined, the bedroom.
I searched my thoughts frantically for something to talk about that would get my mind off the bedroom. We still had ten minutes left in the drive. Another fifteen or twenty after that to get Emma ready for bed and then back to sleep. And then–
“I want to introduce you to my mom,” Landon said, knocking all the hedonistic thoughts right out of my head.
“Your mom?” I repeated like he’d said a word I wasn’t familiar with.
“Yes,” Landon said, the corner of his mouth twisting sardonically. “I do have one, you know. I didn’t just spring from Zeus’s head, fully formed.”
“You’re not a Roman god?” I feigned surprise to cover the fact he had shocked me. He’d mentioned his mother so infrequently when we were together that I’d assumed they were estranged.
Landon turned onto the street that led to his building. “I want her to meet Emma. She’d given up on me giving her grandchildren.”
Grandchildren. Emma was this woman’s granddaughter. I spared a thought for my mother, who I suspected had secretly loved being Emma’s only grandmother. She never did like competition.
“Of course,” I murmured.
“And I want her to meet you, too,” Landon said blandly.
I’d assumed I’d meet her along with Emma, but now I realized that that presented another set of complications. Her relationship to Emma was cut and dry, but what was I to Landon’s mother? It was complicated because I didn’t know what I was to Landon. Would he introduce me as his girlfriend, or simply Emma’s mother?
He caught me staring at him and raised a dark eyebrow. “Is that okay?”
“Of course, it’s just…how are you going to introduce me?”
“I thought I’d start with your name,” Landon said. We pulled into the well-lit garage where I could see the faint amusement on his face.
“And then?” I prompted.
The amusement faded. He shot me a speculative look. “How do you want me to introduce you?”
“I’m not sure,” I murmured. We pulled into his private garage where an elevator would take us right to his floor. It was as safe as it could possibly be, but I still looked around nervously as I got out. The space was wide enough to hold five cars. Landon’s other two were in there, and I couldn’t help walking over to make sure there was no one hiding on the other side of them.
“There are cameras in here,” Landon said as he got out of the car. He pointed to the ceiling where I saw a camera angled down from each corner. “My men keep an eye on them. You’re safe in here, Cami.”
Emma didn’t wake up fully as he got her out, just transferred her drooping head from the carseat to his shoulder. Her hair fell over her closed eyes, and she still held her doll under one arm. “I guess you could introduce me just as Emma’s mom,” I whispered as we got on the elevator.
“If that’s what you want.” Landon’s voice was neutral.