Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“You changed?”
“And left the suit on the bed. I’m sure Hayden will find a use for it. He just needs to have it taken in and it’ll be good to go.”
They were the same height, but Bodhi had muscle on the lawyer, and he was right—through the chest, shoulders, and arms, it would need to be sized down.
In moments, we were joined by Stiel, who was fidgeting with his collar and a scarf where a tie normally was.
“You look uncomfortable,” Bodhi offered, grinning.
“Yeah, whatever this is, cravat, ascot—fuck. I hate it. I’m being slowly choked to death.”
I smiled at him because he just swore over a piece of material. I liked him already.
Bodhi wanted to leave the house for more than one reason, and so he asked, “Should I go get Mr. Sutter or—”
“No,” Stiel said, tugging off the offending garment. “As soon as he notices I’m not there—yeah, see? Here he comes.”
The billionaire was jogging to where we were, which surprised me.
“That lasted longer than usual,” Sutter teased his husband, taking the material from him, putting it quickly to his face, inhaling, and then folding it around his hand as Stiel held the door open.
Walking behind them toward a large SUV, I saw how tightly Stiel clutched his husband to him and how much the billionaire leaned. They were relationship goals right there.
On the plane, Sutter directed us to the back so we could have our privacy and they could have theirs.
“Thank you so much for the ride, sir,” I reiterated. “Our boss wants us back, and we need to be there.”
“Is something going on?” Sutter asked me.
“Not something you can know at the moment,” Stiel told him, tugging his husband close before glancing up at us. “Take a seat, gentlemen.” He was a police commander; he was used to giving orders, just like my boss.
In the back, on a plane that made Hayden’s father’s look shoddy by comparison, Bodhi and I sat together, pressed close, and I loved having his hand curled around the inside of my thigh.
After several moments, I asked him if he was okay.
“I am,” he answered with a sigh. “Which makes me a horrible person, but Hayden did agree that I was saving him more heartbreak down the line.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he knew, Jed,” he said with a rueful smile. “He could tell from looking at me look at you, hearing my voice when I speak to you, and how, like always, I can’t keep my hands off you…that I’m stupid in love with you and that will never change.”
“He said he thought you were stupid in love with me?”
“No, idiot. I added the stupid.”
I smiled at him, and his breath stuttered.
“What else?”
“When we first started talking, he asked if I planned to ever fuck him again.”
“That’s charming,” I said, hating that Hayden spoke to him like that.
“Well, I fucked him a lot, and he liked it.”
“Thanks for that.”
“No, I’m just telling you the truth. I did, and then, as soon as you were in the hospital, I didn’t leave your side, and everything, including that, stopped.”
“Just like that?”
He nodded.
“Why?”
“You know why,” he husked out. “I had you back with me, all your focus on me, just like it’s always been, and you know you’re irresistible.”
“To you.”
“I dunno about that. If you weren’t gay, I think both Meredith and Angie would have taken you home, and Davis—”
“No, listen, Davis fuckin’ hates me and—”
“Davis wanted to take the ride bad.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
“You’re an ass.”
“True,” he agreed, his eyes glinting with mirth before he slowly grew serious. “Hayden hates me now.”
“He doesn’t, though, and I’m sure that’s the problem.”
He nodded. “He said I should have told him everything about you, and he’s right, and I apologized.”
“Well, that part’s good, that you said you were sorry.”
“I mean, I didn’t ruin his life,” he said with a shrug. “And I told him I would pay my half of whatever couldn’t be canceled for the wedding.”
“Weren’t you getting married there, at the house?”
“Well, yeah, but I mean like the catering and stuff like that.”
“I really don’t think they’re going to ask the poor deputy US marshal to pony up any cash. How bad would that look in the press?”
“Press?”
“Did he not tell you he was gonna run for a Senate seat in two years?”
The way he was staring at me, I was guessing not.
“Emily told me that was what the party tonight was for, and Davis confirmed it. So if you think about all of it logically, that means you and Hayden weren’t gonna be in Chicago long.”
“I guess not. He and his family have big plans.”
I studied his face. “Are you mad? I can usually tell.”
“Not mad, just…it feels like if I wasn’t smart enough to know what real love is supposed to feel like and be, that I would have been blindsided when he hit me with all this down the road.”