Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
His calves were strong, his thighs thick. Those swim trunks hung so low on his hips—inches below his navel—Ren wasn’t sure what was even keeping them up. His chest was geometric and tight; she was fascinated by the angles of muscle and bone, the line that ran from his abdomen up the center of his pectorals. His nipples…
God. She’d never really looked at a man’s nipples before.
“You okay there, Sunshine?”
Ren sank further into the water, turning her attention to the plaster ceiling above. “I’m great.”
Steam twisted between them, and she didn’t let herself look again until he was safely underwater. Fitz dropped to the bench across from her and the water was displaced, jostling her in her seat and rocking Ren back against the hot tub wall. Her face positively flamed at the images that flooded her head. Legs bracketing hips, wet skin against wet skin. He groaned in relief, and her stomach tightened in response. Ren had an overwhelming need to clench her legs together. He wasn’t touching her, but it didn’t matter; it felt like his hands were everywhere, all over.
“That feels good,” he murmured.
Not helping.
She’d thought about him—of course she had—but she’d never mapped out the mechanics of touching him. Or of him touching her. Right now, it was all she could think about.
She desperately needed to think about something else.
“What’s your favorite thing about Nashville?”
Fitz dragged his eyes up from the water bubbling at the surface, visibly thrown. “What?”
“Nashville. What do you love about it?”
He closed his eyes, leaning his head back so that his Adam’s apple pushed forward.
Not helping.
“The food. The music. The feel of being outside on a warm spring night.” He lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “It feels more like home than home does.”
“Is it your mom’s side or dad’s side?”
“What’s that?”
“Your family there,” she said. “In Nashville.”
“Oh.” Fitz lifted a hand and dragged his fingertips through the bubbles. “Um…mom.” He smiled, but it didn’t look happy. “Nashville isn’t really Robert Fitzsimmons’s style.”
“What’s he like?”
He exhaled a dry laugh through his nose. “Rich.”
“Really?” She laughed incredulously. “That’s the only way you’d describe your father?”
“Well, no,” he said, dragging a hand through his wet hair. “He’s also disciplined. I’m sure I’ll grow up to be a very productive member of society, thanks to him.”
“That doesn’t sound very warm and cuddly.”
“That’s not really his way,” he said.
Ren hadn’t known him long, but she liked to think she was figuring him out and knew when it was time to stop pushing. “Okay, next question. What’s—”
“No,” he interrupted. “It’s my turn now.”
She swallowed. “Okay.”
“What do you find attractive in a person?”
She didn’t even have to think. “Kindness. In the eyes, especially.”
“Kindness, huh?”
Ren grinned at him. “Broad shoulders and big hands don’t hurt, though.”
Fitz laughed. “There it is.”
She gnawed her lip, dropping her gaze to his neck, because she couldn’t look him in the eye when she asked, “What about you?”
He gave a little shrug and stretched an arm across the back of the hot tub. “I like people who are good.” She looked away from how the movement elongated his muscle, his pectoral twitching just below the surface of the water, and squeezed her legs together again. “Opposites attract, you know.”
She stared at him, knowing he expected her to call him out for this self-flagellation disguised as cockiness. “That wasn’t the answer I was expecting,” she said instead. Glimpses of his genuine depth still took her by surprise.
“You thought I was going to say boobs or asses or something like that.”
It took all her strength to not cross her arms over her chest. “Obviously.”
“Right,” he said darkly, “because I get in everyone’s pants.”
“If you say so.”
“I never said so. You did.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about this,” she reminded him. “Rule number eleven.”
“We’re practically naked together in a hot tub. Road trip rules are out the window right now.”
“Okay, then,” she said bravely. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
His answer was clear as a bell: “No.”
“Oh.” It was like every bone in her body liquefied.
He leaned forward again, his smile wide and wicked. “My turn,” he said.
“No,” she protested. “It’s my turn now. You asked about what I found attractive.”
“And you just asked whether I have a girlfriend.”
She frowned. Dang it.
“In the car,” Fitz began, “you said you couldn’t die before you were kissed. Is that true?”
“Is what true? That I don’t want to die? Yes, it’s true.”
He laughed. “No, wiseass, is it true that you’ve never been kissed?”
She took a beat to steady her voice. “Yes.”
He looked away, squinting in the distance at the wall on the far end of the room. After a deep breath, he turned his eyes back to her. “We could fix that, you know.”
A thunderbolt cracked through her torso. “What?”
“I could be your first. You know, to get it out of the way.”