Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Malachi’s hand dropped to his lap, and he let out a slow breath while his gaze remained locked out the front windshield. “Been there, done that, too.”
She couldn’t bring herself to press him on that.
Gracen’s heart already ached enough.
“Hey,” she told him, reaching over the fast-food bag to give Malachi a playful shove. It earned her tired smile.
“What?” he asked.
“Can I make a safe guess that talking about all of this isn’t what you want to do with me tonight?”
The question raised his eyebrows high. “I mean, let me know if you’ve got better things on your mind.”
Of course, she did.
Fun things, too.
“My evening is open,” Malachi added.
As if it wasn’t already clear.
*
“Gracen, is that you?”
The question came with the creak of the downstairs bathroom door.
Crap.
“Go,” Gracen ordered Malachi with a shove to the back of his leather jacket. He gave her a look over his shoulder while he climbed the old staircase to the second floor and a chuckle when her gaze narrowed on him with a warning in response. Her silent demand for him to be quiet. Just so she could call back to Delaney, “Yeah, it’s me. Finish your shower, I’ll catch you up on stuff later, okay?”
At least, she assumed Delaney was planning on a shower based on the running water echoing down the rear hallway. Her friend liked to run the shower for a few minutes, swearing it was the only way to get it as hot as she liked it.
Who was Gracen to argue?
She preferred baths.
Gracen held her breath while she leaned over the railing to listen for her friend’s reply, hoping she wouldn’t exit the bathroom.
“Does that stuff you speak of have anything to do with a certain guy, or not?” Delaney questioned.
Suppressing her smile and refusing to meet the gaze of the man who was currently shrugging off his leather jacket at the top of the stairs, Gracen said, “Ah, yeah. We will definitely be talking about Malachi later.”
The girls did have rules. Especially about their home and bringing other people—male, mostly—around.
For good reason, too.
She’d fill Delaney in on her temporary houseguest later. After the fun was finished and her best friend couldn’t cockblock Gracen and Malachi with a game of Twenty Questions. Although, it wouldn’t take Delaney long to figure it out once she exited the bathroom and noticed the scuffed, black combat boots sitting next to Gracen’s runners just beyond the front foyer.
“All I need to know,” Delaney called out before the bathroom door slammed shut.
“We good?” Malachi asked at the top of the stairs, his arched brow and easy smile enough to make Gracen want to crawl up to meet him.
He’d even pulled off his shirt, too.
Jesus.
“We are perfect,” she returned, already climbing the steps.
If she knew Delaney like Gracen thought she did, her friend would be tied up in the bathroom for at least an hour. Or more. With music—that Gracen could already hear muffled through the walls—blasting, Delaney would go through her entire evening routine like clockwork.
They were safe.
Well, from interruption, anyhow.
Malachi managed to find Gracen’s bedroom without her direction, but to be fair, it was the only one upstairs. He turned the corner to enter the space first, so she didn’t see him reach for her until both his hands reached out through the doorway to grab her arms. He muffled her surprised giggles with a messy kiss that left her breathless and only a little lightheaded. She barely noticed that he’d shut the door with a gentle nudge of his foot against the edge.
Gracen had better things on her mind.
Other distractions to enjoy.
Like Malachi.
And his wandering hands.
He worked apart her jeans while keeping her back pinned to the door, his fleeting, quick kisses dotting over her trembling jaw and down her throat. Anticipation raced through Gracen’s bloodstream with every kiss he added to the torturous path down her body.
Malachi dropped to his knees.
Just to tug her jeans down.
His hands slid up over her hips while he surveyed the black cotton panties at his eye-level. she stepped out of her jeans with a bit of his help.
“Love a thong,” he praised as he grabbed two handfuls of her ass and squeezed tight. “All I need to do is slip it aside—”
“At least let me lay down on the bed first.”
She would need the stability.
And one of her decorative pillows to help keep her quiet. She remembered exactly how much this man had enjoyed making her gasp and shout the last time he’d found his way between her thighs.
Not that Gracen had a complaint.
Malachi made for a good bedfellow.
Her request didn’t bother him. In fact, he stood just to drop another bruising, breathless kiss against her lips before his hands clasped behind her thighs where he could get a good lift. Her legs wrapped his waist while he navigated the two across the fluffy rug before he dropped Gracen to the bed.