Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Kimmy puts on her best, charming Kimmy smile. “I’m so sorry,” she says to him. She scrambles up and retrieves her fork from the floor. “I’m so, so sorry. That was a total accident. Are you hurt?”
“No,” he snorts, eyes raking up and down the lovely red dress she has painted on over her luscious curves. He’s not being creepy. It’s just that no one can keep themselves from looking at Kimmy. She’s gorgeous, and when she’s in red, no one stands a chance. That snort was more of the variety that says a fork couldn’t do dick to him because he’s made of iron and has skin thicker than sheet metal. “No harm done.”
“Good. I’m so glad to hear it.” Kimmy pats his shoulder. “Can I buy you your dessert to make up for just about embedding my fork in the back of your head?”
Kimmy could charm the pants off anyone, including the love child of an angry, rampaging, snorting, horking bull and the nastiest creature from the depths of any lore. I can’t think of what that might be, but this guy is far from it. Wearing a knitted sweater and jeans, he’s sitting there alone and eating cheesecake by himself. His dark hair is well-manicured, as is the short beard that graces his square, iron jaw. He might be burly, but this guy is fit in a way that—hmm, I don’t know—freaking football players are fit. And not the quarterbacks or the ones that run fast, either. Yeah, I don’t know much about sports, okay?
The big wall of a guy grins at Kimmy, easy-going now. “I’d like it better if you and your friend joined me and let me pay for yours.”
I’ve heard a lot of come-ons and pick-up lines over the years. This one is just honestly spoken, like the guy really would enjoy that, now that he’s narrowly missed and escaped having a fork surgically removed from his skull. His smile seems genuine. I almost feel bad for the way Kimmy is going to shut him down because she shuts everyone down. She’s married to her job. She says that all the time. She might have been on some hot dates before, but she gets annoyed when guys check her out, and even more so when they ask her out. She doesn’t like flirting, and even though she looks like a goddess, she’s not into flattery.
“I’d like that too.”
I nearly fall off my chair and simultaneously just about stab myself in the leg with my fork. What the hell? I couldn’t have just heard that right. But no, I guess I did because Kimmy is coming back, getting her plate and water glass, and craning her head in that come hither with me directive that she has down to a science.
That’s how we end up sitting at the guy’s table, my hands folded in my lap, my fork and cheesecake perched on the blue Formica tabletop. I’m beside Kimmy, and she’s seated across from Mystery Dude.
“Hadrian.” He offers his hand to me first, then to Kimmy. Hmm. Clearly a mind reader, on top of his Kimmy-charming talents.
I really don’t know what to say or think. My mind is a big blank space. I’ve never seen Kimmy react like this to anyone. It’s like Hadrian has doused himself with extra charming pheromones, and she’s been seductively sucked in, but I can’t smell them because pheromones only work on certain people. Maybe that’s why I could never get Van out of my head. His pheromones were a perfect match, and they stayed perfect. That and a hundred thousand other reasons, half of which I still don’t understand. He’s this wonderful mystery, and he wants to take me on a date.
I must be making some kind of moony-eyed face because Kimmy rolls her eyes. “Right. So, my bestie and I were discussing my brother.” I can’t believe she’s really going to air this to a complete stranger, but Hadrian sits there so calmly with his big stony jaw and piercing blue eyes. A faint whisper of a breeze drifts through the place, I have no idea from where, and I swear his beard actually rustles. He would be intimidating if not for the kind way his lips tilt up in a perpetual smile that seems completely real. “I got a little worked up,” Kimmy admits. “And that’s when my fork just about took up permanent residence in your skull.”
“I see. What had you so bothered?”
Kimmy’s jaw clenches. Where’s the sharp end of that sword-honed tongue of hers lopping off this guy’s head? Good gravy, is she still blushing? She indicates to me with a chin tilt. “She’s been madly in love with him forever. He left for a long time, and now he’s back and wants to take her on a date. She’s asking me if that’s okay.”