Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84102 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Nina turned slightly. “They went home with their grandparents. JT and I are actually checking into the Mandarin for the rest of the weekend. It’s their gift to us.”
Even in the low light from the dashboard, she could see the way JT grinned at his wife. “It’s the best present of all. Time alone. I love our kids, but damn I miss long mornings in bed. Most of the time I wake up to Jasper bouncing on top of me or Ryder screaming through the baby monitor. Tomorrow I’m sleeping in and we’re having breakfast in bed.”
That sounded lovely, and she couldn’t help but wonder what the professor did with his mornings. He probably read the paper while drinking coffee, and wouldn’t he look adorable with his hair all messy and his eyes still sleepy?
She had it bad. One evening with the man and she was thinking about how he would look in the morning.
How long would he take to call her? Would he play it cool and wait the prescribed three days so he didn’t look too eager? That would be disappointing.
Maybe she should text him tomorrow. It would be a way to let him know she was interested and they didn’t have to play games.
Not any of the yucky games. Now sexy games were a whole other story.
That kiss…that kiss had sparked something deep inside her, and it hadn’t merely been about sex. It had been a long time since she’d gotten down and dirty with a man, and she had needs. But David wouldn’t merely be a body in bed. They’d connected.
She’d felt a spark.
Or was she desperate and looking for something?
“How did you two know?”
The cab went awkwardly quiet, and Tessa wished she hadn’t said anything.
“Know?” JT asked.
“I felt something for JT pretty much the minute I met him.” Lucky for her, Nina didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Of course I might not have if I’d known he was lying to me.”
“Now, I did not lie,” JT argued.
Nina turned her husband’s way. “Did you or did you not know I was your bodyguard?”
JT’s big shoulders shrugged. “I might have had an inkling, but then I knew you wouldn’t kiss me if you thought we had a professional connection. So I might have played dumb. Hey, baby, it worked out.”
“Is this about the guy you were with at the bar?” Nina asked.
“She was hitting on some guy at the bar? Well, good for you, Tess. It was probably more interesting than watching Mike stumble through that toast. He is not a public speaker,” JT said with a shake of his head.
“I wasn’t hitting on him. I was talking to him.” And then she was kissing him. She’d seen the moment he’d decided not to make a move on her, and she’d decided to make one of her own. He was obviously a cautious man, and she didn’t mind that. She could be reckless. “I stopped in to grab a drink and we started talking. He was a student of my mom’s.”
“Really? That’s fascinating,” Nina said.
“Why would you go to the bar? We had an open one at the party,” JT countered.
Nina put a hand on his arm. “It doesn’t matter. So he was a student of your mother’s.”
JT deserved an explanation. She’d skipped out on their party. “I’m sorry. It was weird to answer all those questions. Some of the people there didn’t know Michael and I broke up. And I was avoiding Charlotte, because she’s been hinting that she wants to try her hand at matchmaking again. Apparently her latest experiment went well.”
“Yes, I heard she set up Hutch with the daughter of a family friend,” Nina allowed. “They’re getting married, so Charlotte’s on a high.”
“Hutch? The young guy who hooks up with women in closets and plays video games for a living?” JT whistled. “No wonder Michael was in a bad mood. I think he’s starting to feel like a wallflower. I keep telling him no one is calling him a spinster behind his back.”
“No, you say it to his front,” Nina accused. “He’s sensitive about it, you jerk. And I did hear Charlotte mention she had recently met a few single men she thought would make lovely partners. You were probably right to run.”
Charlotte tended to set up people she knew, and she mostly knew people who worked at McKay-Taggart or the investigative company run by Adam Miles and Jake Dean.
The last thing she wanted was to date anyone connected to her work. Not again. And definitely not anyone who lived in the lofty world of Dallas’s elite. She’d tried, and it hadn’t been a good place for her. She hadn’t fit in there, and she didn’t want to.
“I’m sorry about missing the party. I got caught up in talking to him. He’s a professor and he knows all this interesting stuff,” she admitted.