Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“I’d really like it,” I tell her softly. Her tongue comes out to lick her lip and then she pulls the whole bottom lip into her mouth, her teeth biting it. My mind starts playing tricks on me because all I can see is me advancing on her, taking her face in my hands, and kissing the shit out of her. “I should get going,” I say, getting up. I don’t want to leave but know that I should really, really go before I do something stupid that I can’t take back.
“Oh, yeah,” she says, getting up and standing in front of me. My hand reaches out before I have a chance to take it back. Taking her cheek in my palm, I move it down to her neck and then her shoulder. I turn and walk away from her, my hand falling like a lead weight. She follows me to the door, and the light’s on from when Zoe left.
“I really had fun today,” I say, grabbing my keys and glasses, then turn and look at her, trying to take her all in. “Let me know about the game or the casino night.” I try not to make a big deal about it, but my stomach is in knots.
“I will,” she finally says, nodding.
Leaning in, I swear I hear her breath hitch. I’m so tempted to kiss her open mouth, but instead, I kiss her on the cheek softly. “Lock up after me,” I tell her and walk out of the house and make my way to the car. I get in the car, starting it up, and pull away even though I have no idea where I’m going. The only thing I knew was that I needed to get away from her before I turned back around and begged her until she said yes.
I turn the corner and take out my phone. It’s almost nine p.m., and I have forty-seven missed calls and over one hundred text messages. “Fuck,” I say to myself and call my sister since she is the majority of the calls. She picks up after one ring.
“Where the hell have you been?” she shouts into the phone.
“I met up with some friends in New York. Why?” I say, checking the texts to make sure I didn’t miss anything urgent. Mostly, it’s the guys discussing dinner.
“Friends in New York?” she asks. “What friends?”
“What difference does it make?” I open my maps and punch in the address to the hotel, following the directions while I connect the Bluetooth. “What were all the missed calls?”
“I was calling to ask you if I could go to Mexico for the four days when you guys are on break,” she tells me. “Then you didn’t answer me, and it pissed me off, so I booked it anyway.”
“Why do I need to give you permission?” I ask her, getting on the bridge out of New York. Suddenly, I feel like I’m forgetting something.
“You don’t need to give me permission. It’s just during the casino night thing, and well, four of my friends are going, so I just booked it.”
“It’s fine, Cand,” I tell her. “I didn’t even think you were coming to the casino night. You hate those events.”
“Yeah,” she says. “Anyway, what did you do today?”
“Not much. Is everything good there? How are the dogs?” I change the subject, and she fills me in about everything that has been going on, which isn’t much. I hang up with her just before I get to the hotel and park the car in front of the door, giving the valet the keys and telling him I borrowed it from the hotel. He nods his head and hands me a ticket to give the front desk.
By the time I make it to my room, I’m ready to crash, but I undress and take a shower. My body feels tense as fuck, and I let the hot water wash over my neck while I stand there playing over the day in my head. When I finally walk out of the bathroom, I check my phone and have one notification from Instagram.
Zara Stone has accepted your follow request.
Chapter Nine
Zara
I feel his kiss linger on my cheek the whole time I’m locking the door after he left. My hands shake while I walk around the house, turning off the lights and heading upstairs to my bedroom. I’m exhausted and tense. Tense because I want to go watch his hockey game but know that I can’t without it getting back to my brother. Tense because I want to be his date to that casino night and tense because all I wanted was for him to kiss me before he left.
I start the bath before I undress and light the candle. Slowly sinking into the hot water, I wait for the tension to leave my body. I’m usually good with closing off my mind and just letting it go but not tonight. Tonight, the only thing I see when I close my eyes is him. Smiling, laughing, looking into my eyes. I give up on relaxing and get out the bath, wrapping in a huge white plush towel. I walk to my bedroom and slide into bed, grabbing my phone and checking my messages. I can’t even deal with the messages from Zoe right now or the fact that she started a group chat. Instead, I go on Instagram and see I still have it open to Evan’s page.