Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 148704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 744(@200wpm)___ 595(@250wpm)___ 496(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 744(@200wpm)___ 595(@250wpm)___ 496(@300wpm)
Crew’s lips press together, his eyes flicking to my mouth and back, and my stomach swirls, dips, and twists. Vulnerability is common when staring into my favorite hazel eyes, but tonight, it runs a little deeper because I know he can read between the lines.
They won’t find in my gaze what he will.
Want. Need. Trust.
“You know we’re celebrating graduation, right?” he says suddenly.
My grin splits fast. “This weekend feels like a celebration. I’ve never done anything like this before.” I adjust slightly, looking out at the last of the crowd in the clearing. There’s at least a quarter of them left mingling.
“Tell me you didn’t plan to do something else before Layla invited you.”
See? He knows me well.
“I totally want to be bougie and go to Napa, pretend I can afford it and pay an obscene amount of money for a bottle of wine, internally praying it’s a sweet, sugary one I’ll actually drink.” Smiling, I face Crew. “I’ve saved all my tips since March.”
“Then we’ll go.”
“We?”
“Am I not invited?”
“Oh please.” I roll my eyes. “You’d be the only one invited and you know it.”
Crew chuckles then, and when he faces the crowd, I do the same. “We’re going on that trip.”
Don’t cheese too hard, Davis. Play it cool.
“Okay, two o’clock.” I steer us away from plans of the future before I embarrass myself. “The pixie-cut brunette and the Leo DiCaprio stunt double.”
Crew looks for the pair, falling right back into the game we used to play all the time, but haven’t had the chance to in years.
He considers the duo a moment, gaze narrowing in thought. “She’s laughing at what he’s saying, but she’s not reaching out to touch him when she does, and look. His head turns toward the chicks outside the tequila hut every time he takes a drink.”
It totally does.
“I say they fuck when they feel like it,” he decides. “But their friends don’t know it, and they still hook up with other people.”
“Sounds fair.” I nod. “Oh! Ten o’clock, blonde girl in a baggy hoodie and scruffy-haired skinny guy.”
“Got ’em. Your turn.”
“Okay.” I stare at the two a moment, sneaking a quick look at the others around them. “I think she likes him, and he knows it, but she’s softer than what he’s used to. She came with her friend, hoping this guy would be here, but now that he is, she has no idea how to act.”
“Because she doesn’t want to seem forward, but forward is what he likes.”
“Exactly.” We stare some more, and the poor girl. “Aw, she’s just waiting for his attention, and he won’t give it to her until she demands it.”
Crew laughs, and I flip on my side again, facing him.
“What should she do?”
Crew watches me closely, and after a few seconds, adjusts so he’s positioned the same as me. “She should make the first move.”
“But what if he doesn’t want her?”
“Trust me.” His eyes bounce between mine, then he says. “He does.”
Crew
A silent beat passes between us, and slowly, the corner of her mouth lifts. She loves this shit, getting the smallest insight into a man’s mind.
Into my mind.
Crazy as it might seem to others, the girl legit feels like she’s sitting front row in her class of choice, pen and paper ready.
Her eyes damn near dance under the lights. “So how do you know when someone’s making the first move? Like what are some signs they want you?”
“You’d know.”
“Humor me.” Her scowl is far too playful.
Playful Davis is dangerous. Shit, smiling, pissy, breathing Davis is dangerous.
I like all her colors, but the sexually intrigued version is a fucking killer.
Call me Sherlock, ’cause I want to catch her. Keep her.
Punish her, oh so fucking good.
“Crew,” she prompts.
Okay, Sweets…
“Staring into someone’s eyes with a long pause. Shifting around so your skin is touching theirs.” I slowly and intentionally lower my gaze, so she knows to follow, and witnesses with her own eyes where her knee has lifted on the blanket. It’s hiked up high and pressed to mine.
Right now, with her attention held on the spot our bodies are linked, she’s thinking about the way she stared into my eyes seconds before asking her question. Even under the midnight sky, nothing but LED string lights a few feet away, I spot the flush working its way up her neck, feel the deep inhale she pulls in—deep in my fucking groin.
“You’re a woman, Davis, your body knows what it wants. It will lead you if you let it.”
“Can I?”
I frown. “Can you what?”
“Let it lead?” Her tone is so low, so damn husky.
Finally, she looks up, and the motherfucking expression on her face.
Goddamn.
Her lips are parted with need, her eyes low and swimming with hunger, a neediness she can’t hide. Not from me.
Not that she’s trying.
It’s more than that, though. It’s the sense of desire radiating off her, and not of the sexual kind. Desire to take control. To be the one leading and discovering where it takes her.