Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
They needed time. He was asking her for it. He’d been honest before and he was being the same now.
It was enough.
“I’ll make a deal with you. We don’t give up on each other. Not even if it doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work then we’ll be friends and we’ll still have each other’s back. No matter what.”
He kissed her again, on her cheek. “No matter what. Now why don’t I take you to bed and hold you and you can sleep and when you wake up, we’re going to start this thing. Will I like game night? I might be bad at games. I’m really more of a shoot people kind of guy.”
For the first time in days she laughed. And yawned. “I think you’ll be great at them.”
When she laid her head on his shoulder, she fell asleep, and all the pain seemed to slide away.
Chapter Five
“Come on,” Yasmin begged. “You’re dating him, right? You go to lunch with him at least once a week. I heard he’s going to game night.”
MaeBe looked up from her computer. It had been months since she and Kyle had made their bargain and while she was sexually frustrated, she was also pretty damn happy. And she kind of liked the mystery of their will-they-or-won’t-they, circling-each-other relationship. It kept people on their toes. “We’re friends.”
They were. It was one of the oddest relationships of her life because while they were friends, there was always an underlying tension. She kind of worried about what would happen if it broke. When it broke.
He hadn’t kissed her beyond the forehead or the cheek. Sometimes he stared at her like he wasn’t sure what to do with her, but he damn straight wasn’t letting her go.
She loved those moments.
Yasmin groaned. “Come on. I’m living vicariously through you. You can’t tell me you’re not playing around with that gorgeous man.”
“I’m totally playing with him,” she returned with a grin. “We’ve got a Gloomhaven game going. It’s been on my dining room table for weeks because Big Tag keeps sending him on assignment. I was excited when he broke his foot because I could hold him down and finish the campaign.”
Kyle had been attacked by a client’s massive Louis Vuitton bag and broken his foot. He’d been the worst patient in the history of time. She was fairly certain Grace was going to murder her baby boy. He was once again recovering at his mom’s place, though getting him there had been a miracle.
He’d wanted to stay at his brother’s place. With all the stairs. When he was in a boot and not supposed to walk.
Frustrating man.
Yasmin’s eyes rolled. “You are mean.” The receptionist turned and started walking away. “If I was having a hot affair, I would talk to you about it.”
“It’s not a hot affair,” MaeBe corrected. “More like a warm friendship.”
With the hope of hotness when her damaged guy got his shit together. It was happening, but patience was the key when it came to Kyle Hawthorne.
“Morning, Mae.” Hutch gave her that half grin that let her know he had something crappy to tell her. He also had a box in his hand. Macon’s bakery.
He had something terrible he wanted to tell her. Or to ask her to do. “If this is about some overnight watch job, those better be chocolate croissants.”
He winced. “And macarons. Also, they’re not from me. They’re from Kyle. You know how he was worried about his brother being in Argentina? Well, turns out they’re pretty sure David got kidnapped and Big Tag and Sean are on their way down right now.”
Her heart threatened to stop. “Is Kyle freaked out?” She started to grab her keys. “I’ll go and sit with him. Grace must be a mess.”
So many things seemed to be going wrong for that part of the family right now. Carys was in some kind of trouble over her relationship with Aidan O’Donnell and Tristan Dean-Miles. Luke had an accident. Something was going on at Top with inspections. It was a lot. Grace could probably use some help with her most annoying child.
“This is the part where you remember I’m easily moved to mischief.” Hutch set the box down on the desk and backed up. “Kyle convinced me to help smuggle him on the plane, and he’s on his way down there, too. Sorry, MaeBe. He made me do it. I told him it was a bad idea and you would be mad, and he told me to tell you to take care of the cat.”
Hutch hustled to his big office and closed the door.
That asshole. She was going to kill him.
* * * *
He was going to kill everyone, and this wasn’t like the time when he heroically ignored his broken foot to go and save his brother from kidnappers. Nope. That was completely different.