Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 141165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“Oh, fuck, no problem,” Sulli says, dropping crumbs into her shirt. Jane and her share a smile. “I can just sit right here and eat some more of these non-cupcakes and non-donuts.” She looks to Akara like she might go hang with him and Banks.
Grandmother Calloway touches Sulli’s shoulder. “Another time, dear. Tell your mother to call. I haven’t spoken with her in a while.”
“I’ll pass it along,” Sulli says.
Grandmother Calloway looks from Jane to me. “Follow me.”
* * *
Ten minutes. I clocked it. From the minute we sat down at the private table to the minute we stood up to leave. And all ten minutes felt like a brutal underhanded rag on me.
“I’m so sorry,” Jane apologizes for the tenth time. She sits on the rung of a vintage wooden ladder. We’ve slipped into a small wine closet before we head back to the parlor. Shelves and racks of wine reaching at least ten feet high.
I cross my arms over my chest. My coat tight on my muscles. “Don’t be sorry, honey.”
She stares at me a second longer.
I continue, “It wasn’t that bad.”
Her eyes enlarge. “She brought out escargot just to see if you knew how to eat it. And don’t get me started on quizzing you about your education.”
Her grandmother asked if I went to Wharton.
When I said no she started listing a bunch of Ivy Leagues and asking about those.
It took a while before Jane could cut in and tell her what needed to be said. That she shouldn’t have done something that involved Jane’s personal life without Jane’s permission. That if anything like this happens to her siblings or cousins, there will be hell to pay.
Jane was firm.
Resolute.
And she even got a half-hearted I’m sorry from her grandmother. I’d take all the fucking underhanded comments about where I’m from and how I don’t fit into high society just to see and hear all of that over again.
But I also understand Jane feels like she didn’t protect me in the process. I’m really the last person that needs shields or handrails. Grandmother Calloway can throw underhanded comments my way, all day long. As long as she’s not pulling shit on Jane, I’m fine.
That’s all there is to it.
My eyes sink into Jane’s. “I can handle your grandmother.” I was polite. I didn’t raise my voice. Didn’t wish for my taser but only once . And that was in my head, so no fault there. “And,” I continue. “I’m glad you did this. She needed to hear all of that shit as much as I think you needed to say it to her.”
She nods. “I think so, too.”
I hold out a hand. She stares at my opened palm and her lips upturn. “Merci.” She takes my hand and rises off the ladder to her feet.
“So we’re in agreement,” she says into a stronger breath. “No regrets.”
“None here.”
She smiles brighter and adjusts her purse on her hip. “The best part is that she’s already disinvited to Christmas, so I won’t have to see her for a good while.”
“Whose call was that?”
“My mom’s,” she says into a wider grin. “But that decision was actually made back during Greece. For what she said to Maximoff and Farrow.”
Good. I think most of the family will be happier with a Grandmother Calloway free zone for the foreseeable future. It won’t change anything with security. We’ll still keep tabs on her in case she decides to go rogue again.
Jane and I shift nearer. I slide my hand along the small of her back, and her breath shallows as she tucks hers into my back pocket. We thread together.
This close in the small closet, I can smell her shampoo. Spring. Flowers.
It’s intoxicating.
“We are just two people in a wine closet with zero regrets,” Jane whispers. We stare at one another for a silent moment. Fuck it. I lean down and kiss her. Lips swelling beneath mine. She stands on her tiptoes, and then I pick her up to lessen the strain on both of us. More eyelevel. Lips lined up.
I suck on the bottom of hers.
Her breath catches in her throat, and her fingers tighten in my hair. But it’s her thighs that squeeze around me that causes my cock to beg for her.
“Thatcher,” she breathes my name in my ear like honey dripping down flesh.
I press my mouth to her neck. She moans a little.
Christ.
I pull back just to meet her eyes. I have to be direct. “I’m going to set you down,” I tell her. “Because if we keep kissing, I’m going to put my cock in you.”
Flush dots her cheeks. “That sounds pleasant…”
“Jane.”
“I meant to say, pleasant and something we can do later at our scheduled hour.” She smiles and pats my chest. “You may set me down.” Our scheduled hour: tonight . Couldn’t come fast enough.