Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 90682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
I grin. “Obviously.”
“All right. If you get me coffee, I’ll ride along with you.”
“Dang. You’re a cheap date.”
When she laughs, her boobs jiggle.
“Way cheaper than the old lady next door. I’m out a few hundred dollars ’cause of her.”
“She had your number the minute she saw you.” Posey picks her book back up but doesn’t start reading it again. “I’m shocked she hasn’t put you to work in her backyard or had you build, like, shelves in her closet or something.”
Er. She might have hit me up for some manual labor—and I still may—all she needs is an enclosure built for her garbage cans so the animals don’t get into it at night.
I don’t mention this to Posey.
“You, uh, going to bed?” I’m lingering like a puppy dog, and I’m not even mad about it.
“Soon. Want to finish this chapter.” She laughs. “Just one more chapter, right? Isn’t that what they always say?”
How the hell would I know what they always say? I don’t even know who they are.
“Kay.” I scratch my head so I’m not tempted to scratch my balls. “Want me to get you up or are you plannin’ on settin’ an alarm?”
“I’ll set an alarm. I don’t trust you not to come in here banging pots and pans.”
“Pots and pans? Now ain’t that a fine idea.”
The wheels in my brain start turning.
“Don’t even think about it,” she warns me. “I swear on all that is holy…”
Imagine how pissed she’d be if I woke her up by dumping a pail of water on her head. Madder than a wet cat, except she’d probably refuse to go anywhere with me and if she did, she’d make the day a living hell.
Nix the bucket of cold water…
“I don’t trust you anymore,” Posey lets me know.
“Me! I’ve only scared you once, and that was unintentional. You have purposely scared the piss out of me twice.”
“You’re bigger than I am.”
“So? What does size have to do with anything?”
Her petite shoulders go up in a shrug. “It counts for something.”
“All right. Well.” I stand there, staring.
Smooth shoulders, smooth collarbone, smooth legs—round boobs.
Damn.
“I’ll leave you to it.”
She gives a tiny wave. “See you in the morning.”
“Sweet dreams.”
Sweet dreams? Shoot me now.
13
posey
My target hasn’t moved a muscle since I tiptoed through the door, his long body immobile under the covers.
Excellent, excellent…
With my feet in socks so as not to be detected, I’m quiet as a mouse, so stealth and eel-like as I creep toward him, feeling every bit the cunning creature of the night I’m not, as if my very life depended on my silence.
Tip.
Toe.
Crouching, I take my time as I sleuth to the bed, studying him before moving forward another few inches.
He’s so eerily still, not even his chest is moving up and down.
The anticipation is making me anxious—I can’t wait to see the man jump out of his skin when I wake him up, the way I’m going to wake him up.
This is going to be so entertaining.
See, because our Scare Score is uneven (Posey: 2, Duke: 1), I’m no longer feeling so cocky and wasn’t willing to take the chance that he wouldn’t try to scare the shit out of me while I was still sleeping—the way I’m doing to him right now.
“You’re about to rise and shine, buttercup,” I whisper, reaching into my back pocket for a toy megaphone someone once got me as a gift, then reaching to remove the covers from his body so I can expose his face. Dude must be suffocating beneath all those blankets—
“OH MY GOD, DON’T TOUCH IT!” a deep voice bellows—no, yells—then blasts an air horn. It pierces the air, blaring behind me in three short spurts.
I scream—obviously, I scream—an ear-piercing screech so loud it could wake the dead and probably has, or at least woken poor Mrs. Galvin next door. Or maybe I don’t scream at all. Who knows. I'm so freaking freaked out I have no way of knowing if actual sound is coming from my body.
“Oh hey,” Duke says casually, emerging from between the guest room closet doors as if it were his office, or the bathroom and he belonged in there. “Almost didn’t see ya standing there.”
Liar.
Liar, liar, LIAR!
If he wasn’t on the other side of the room, I’d…I’d…
“Y-You…” I stutter, heart racing so wildly I have to sit on the edge of the bed and remind myself to breathe. I can barely put two sentences together. He scared me so bad. “Were you hiding in there?”
“Thought you’d pull a fast one over on me this mornin’, did ya?” He tosses the air horn on the bed. “Jeez, never thought you’d wake up. I was gettin’ so bored in there.”
When I pat my hand around the formation under the covers, my fingers sink in. “If you’re over there, then what is this?”