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)
Gracen had no reason to tell Malachi about Sonny—not that she had any intention of mentioning his name. It just seemed unfair to engage in any flirting or otherwise with someone if a hundred percent of her wasn’t entirely in it to begin with.
Malachi frowned, leaning over the hood of the car and tapping a beat to the matte metal finish with his index finger. “A recent thing?”
Good God.
The shame settled deep.
Gracen blew out a stressed breath. “Not as recent as I would like.”
“Ah, well, there’s that,” he said, slapping his hand to the hood of the car as he straightened up and glanced back at his bike parked in the alley. “I suppose I really can’t get you out on it now unless I wipe all the water off, huh? I do have a second helmet I can use as long as it makes its way back.”
“Ah, no. Not even if it was dry.”
“Seriously?” he asked, swinging back her way with a cocked eyebrow.
“My mom and dad died in a car crash when I was in middle school. It took me a year to even get on the highway again as a passenger. I got my driver’s license late, and only because I didn’t have a choice. I needed to drive.”
Malachi’s easy expression melted away to sadness. “I’m—”
“Sorry, yeah. Most people say that. Anyway,” Gracen said under her breath, wanting to get beyond the pity side of the conversation when someone learned how she’d been left parentless as a preteen. “I’m mostly okay driving now, but I am not getting on that death trap. All I can see is me and pavement, and not one thing in between. I won’t die like that, bleeding on pavement.”
He blinked, speechless.
Gracen only shrugged. “Sorry, that was heavy, huh?”
“I really thought I was gonna be the one to put something like that out there,” he said, putting a fisted hand to his mouth and clearing his throat. “No bike, got it.”
As long as she didn’t have to say it again.
“Everything else is probably good, though,” she told him.
Maybe that could put the two of them back on track.
Her flippant comment gained all of the man’s attention.
“Anything?” he clarified, tone dipping and his grin sexy.
Even cleaned up and clothed, Malachi was hard to resist.
Gracen never did this.
Had not ever done it.
“I’ve never had a one-night stand,” she whispered, cheeks burning pink as he inched closer to her with every word she spoke.
“If I’m gonna be in town, it doesn’t even have to be once,” Malachi returned without flinching.
Gracen laughed out what remained of her anxiety when he grinned salaciously. He had no shame, “I take it, you’ve done this before?”
“Do you really want to know the answer to that?”
“Yeah, probably not,” she agreed.
He stood straight in front of where the car’s headlights might someday be if the job was ever finished. Malachi had to be at least six feet, if not topping it. Just one more thing to make him attractive to Gracen. As a girl who stood five-foot-ten-inches without heels, she’d usually towered over guys for most of high school, if not looked them eye to eye.
She wanted to look up.
Be held.
Consumed.
The very same way Malachi was currently eyeing her tiny yoga shorts. He truly had been a gentleman earlier—she’d not caught him looking at her ass even once.
“Is the guy who rents the apartment coming home? You’re not really roommates, right?”
Malachi shook his head. “Straight night shifts at the mill in Juniper for the month. He does four days on, three off, and they pay his lodging.”
Perfect.
“Only shitty thing about it,” he started.
“Is what?” she questioned.
“All I’ve got is the couch.”
“Lucky for you,” Gracen quipped with a wink as she pointed toward the inside rear of the car, “I was kind of interested in that bench seat back there.”
It was the only thing inside the shell of the car, and since she’d checked it out earlier and determined it was in decent condition, she had zero interest in seeing the inside of an apartment that wasn’t even Malachi’s.
His head bobbed appreciatively while his gaze darted between her and the car. “You’re not fucking with me here?”
“We’re both adults here. We can have fun.”
His lips stretched wide to show straight, white teeth. “Yes, we sure can.”
It didn’t have to mean a thing, and Gracen wouldn’t feel badly about any of it, either.
“Is kissing good, or nah?” he asked, finally stepping close enough that his hands came to rest on her bare knees. It was that moment, the second the soft heat of his skin touched hers, that she stopped trembling. Gracen hadn’t felt the shivers until that moment.
“You’re not cold,” he noted.
“Can’t say I’m nervous, either,” she replied truthfully.
The butterflies beating in her belly did all the work there. No, what was left came from somewhere else.