Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77354 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“I have to get to work, otherwise obviously the answer is yes.”
“Tonight, then?” I stand in front of the mirror, towel around my waist, shaving cream on my face.
“I’ll be back by five,” she says. “I’m in housekeeping today.”
“I have meetings until six.”
“You’re going back to the hotel now? How ironic that despite your suite, you sleep here and work there,” she says. As she passes me in the bathroom, she stops and presses a kiss on my arm. My skin fizzes underneath her lips. Every part of her feels good.
I’ve never spent this much time with a woman, never woken up and gotten dressed with someone before. It feels better than natural. It’s fun and comforting and more than I might have imagined. Not that I ever imagined myself here. I’ve always considered myself a loner.
“I’m going to call Eira tonight. Guinevere has had a temperature, so I just want to check everything’s okay.”
“Okay.” Do I know who Guinevere is? I’m sure I would have remembered the name if she’d mentioned it before. “Who’s Guinevere?” I ask.
“My niece,” she replies from the bedroom.
I don’t know if I’m imagining things, but it feels like the air between us has shifted a little. “Are you mad I didn’t know who Guinevere is?” I ask.
“No,” she snaps. “I’ve never mentioned Guinevere before. Why would I be angry that you didn’t know who she was?”
“You seem mad about something.”
I turn and she’s standing in the doorway to the bathroom, wearing nothing but panties and a bra. It’s my favorite outfit of hers.
“You look beautiful,” I say. “Are you going to be servicing my room today?”
“What can I tell my sister about you?” she asks, ignoring my question.
“Why do you have to tell your sister anything about me?” I reply, bringing the razor to my face.
“Because we’re spending time together. We just went away for the weekend together. I just met five of your closest friends—”
“My only friends.”
“Right,” she says. “And they can know everything about me.”
I try and relax my jaw, and when it doesn’t work, I put the razor down. I’m pretty sure sharp objects should be out of reach right now. “Right,” I reply.
“Can I tell her you’re Ben Fort?”
My eyes slice to hers. She knows the answer to that. “That’s not my name. My name is Bennett Fordham.”
“And what is it you do, Bennett Fordham? Because I thought you were a self-made tech billionaire and president of Fort Inc.”
I sigh. I was having such a nice morning. Shower sex followed by an incredible blow job. And now… this.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“There’s never going to be a time when I can be honest with my family about who you are, is there?” she asks.
I completely abandon my attempt at shaving and wipe the soap from my jaw with a towel. “I don’t know what you’re asking me. I haven’t thought about… any of that. You know how careful I am about separating Bennett Fordham and Ben Fort.”
She glances down at the floor, then turns and heads back into the bedroom.
Fuck.
I hate that I’ve upset her. I wasn’t prepared for this conversation. At all. Maybe I’m naïve but it didn’t occur to me that she needed or wanted to talk about me to anyone. It feels like it’s been just the two of us for weeks now. No one else has been involved.
Until Monday night, when I took her to meet my friends.
I head into the bedroom to try to make things right. She’s dressed and is just putting on her sneakers. “I’ll see you later,” she says and stands.
“Efa.”
She turns to me. “What?”
Nothing I can say is going to make her feel better. I don’t want anyone knowing who I am. That’s not going to change.
She waits for a beat, then two, then she turns and leaves.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
TWENTY-FOUR
Efa
I can’t believe I’m hanging out with a guy who managed to hack the CIA at sixteen. My luck changed right around midday today. Cleaning angry apparently means that everything gets done at warp speed, so I had my rooms done in record time. I managed to swap the Park Suite for one of the junior suites because one of the other girls was complaining about the guest and I offered to take it for her. I’ve not seen or heard from Bennett all day.
But what can he say? Nothing. He doesn’t want me to reveal his identity to my family. To anyone. Being with him means I have to hide, too.
I ruminated for approximately five hours, until the Cove mafia finally did their thing and I got a message from my sister-in-law’s best friend’s husband, Tristan. The hacker.
And that’s when my mood picked up.
He’s in New York after a wedding and offered to meet up. Now, here we are. Just casually hanging out like it’s no big deal.