Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
She stared at me for another couple beats, expressionless, and my heart dropped. She looked down at the floor for a few moments and then slowly raised her gaze to mine. I was caught there, at her mercy. Please forgive me. “Do you wanna come inside, Rick?” she asked.
I breathed out a laugh. “Yes, buttercup, I do.”
She nodded and held her door open to let me in.
CHAPTER 9
Grace
I held the door open as Carson walked in behind me. The lump that had been in my throat during the entire walk from the pool up to my room was starting to recede, but I still felt the lingering hurt over watching Carson with Tawny and what he had said to her about me. I had asked myself all the way up to my room why that stung so damn much that I wanted to roll into a ball and cry. But I had hurt him too. I just hadn’t realized it at the time. I thought he would understand why I couldn’t flaunt the fact that I was spending time with an adult film star in front of my classmates. That was the kind of thing that could come out later and ruin my career as a lawyer—especially in DC, where politics always came into play. I had thought he would roll with it and laugh it off after Parker walked away. It’s why I had come up with that dumb name on the spot—trying to put a private joke out there for Carson. To unite us in that awkward moment. I hadn’t meant to make him feel like he was nothing, that’s not how I felt.
But our lives didn’t mix. Those encounters at the pool made that blatantly obvious. This was supposed to be a weekend of fun, of letting go temporarily, and then returning to exactly what I had been doing before I arrived in Vegas. Was this thing with Carson morphing into something dangerous for both of us?
I don’t know what to call it because it’s totally unfamiliar.
Yes, I could relate. And if feelings got involved, even on a basic level, where did that leave us when all was said and done?
I didn’t know what to do. The logical part of me was telling me to end this and walk away, despite the fact that I liked him and we had this electric chemistry. The emotional part of me was holding on, but to what, I didn’t know and it didn’t make sense.
He was an enigma to me, stinging me one minute and then soothing me the next—with his words, his touch, his smile.
God. This had become complicated and I’d only spent a day and a half with him.
I dropped down on the bed and looked at Carson, now standing with his hip against the corner of the wall, arms crossed, studying me somewhat warily. Why did he have to be so gorgeous? It was his poison and he’d injected me with it—I was infected. I laughed humorlessly, ending on a sigh.
“What?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.
“Us.” I raised both arms and dropped them. “What are we doing, Carson?”
He looked down, sliding his teeth up his bottom lip and worrying his brow. “What do you want to be doing, Grace?”
I sighed. I wanted to be spending time with him. But I wanted it to make sense. I was pretty sure the whole “Guy Number Two” cover was blown, for me anyway. I had done a good job of convincing myself that that was the reason I agreed to spend the weekend with him, but had it ever actually been the case? Maybe not. Something about him drew me in and made me want to stay, break all my rules, throw all my well-made plans out the door, experience things I’d never allowed myself to experience, want things I’d never allowed myself to want.
The truth though? Carson wasn’t part of my plan as I’d convinced myself—he was the antithesis of my plan. And I wasn’t sure anymore if that was bad or good. But did it even matter? We couldn’t be any more than a weekend; it wasn’t possible. For too many reasons to count. And I was pretty sure that it was going to be hard to walk away Monday morning, knowing that that was it. Definitively. Was it worth it to make it that much harder by spending another day with him?
Carson pushed off the wall and walked to the bed and then squatted before me, resting his arms on my knees and looking up into my eyes. “Listen, Grace, clearly this weekend arrangement has changed into something that we didn’t necessarily expect it to. We’re friends.” He smiled but it appeared a bit wobbly. “Who would have guessed? And I for one, want to spend the rest of the weekend with my friend. Do you want that too?”