Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 141676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 708(@200wpm)___ 567(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 708(@200wpm)___ 567(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
“You’re drunk, Pat,” I tell him. “Go home.”
“Not drunk enough,” he says. “And being drunk doesn’t stop me from having eyes. I can still see what’s going on. And hell, Bro, I like it. I like her. I like you when you’re around her and that’s pretty fucking shocking. Like I said, it’s just what this family needs.”
“A pretty redhead?”
He glares at me and raises the bottle to his lips. “I’m talking about you having a beating heart.”
“Bull.” Does he even remember this whole thing is a ruse with an end that can’t come soon enough?
I look over again at Junie, who smiles up at Mother. It’s an easy smile, like she was born into this, and Mother laughs at something she says.
In another life, Patton might be right instead of coming off like his usual jackass self.
Juniper Winkley might have fit into the family geography for real. Another moving piece, another cog slotting seamlessly into our world.
Trouble is, that will never be reality.
Even if we had real feelings deeper than the need to rip off each other’s clothes, there’s no way it makes sense.
I’m not falling into the illogical killing machine called love, and I’m damn sure not dragging this innocent, dreamy-eyed young woman with me.
It’s sunset by the time we get back to the apartment and a swollen moon rises above the city on the horizon.
This time, she doesn’t object when I follow her upstairs, carrying the cookie and an ugly-ass vase she insisted I buy.
When we reach the top of the stairs, though, she freezes. I almost crash into her, but she just holds up a hand. And we listen.
Is that—trickling water?
Catness yowls loudly through the door, erasing any doubt.
“Oh, man. Oh, shit!” She lunges forward, almost tripping in her heels as she unlocks her door and opens it to chaos.
Water streams from under her kitchen sink, spraying across a floor that already resembles a small pond. Catness is perched on the couch, fur raised and hissing at the slow-moving flood.
“Shit!” Junie says again, surveying the damage with panic etched on her face. “And shit, my heels are getting wet…”
“Don’t fuss about the heels—”
She pulls them off and holds them, the straps dangling in one hand as she splashes forward to save Catness.
I’m instantly on edge. This is the last fucking thing she needs.
Even if her scummy landlord pays for the damages, she’ll have to fork out a good wad for the personal stuff that’s ruined.
Fuck this dump entirely.
“You should go. I’ve got this mess to deal with,” she tells me with sad eyes, her phone already clenched in her hand.
“You can’t stay here,” I tell her. “Come back to my place. I can spare a room.”
Your bedroom? My dick throbs hopefully, but now is hardly the time.
Even if the broken way she looks around her apartment, the flowing water making a dramatic scene, makes me want to touch her.
Kiss her.
Pull her into my arms and show her there’s nothing here worth worrying about.
I’m burning to make her forget.
She turns to me, her eyes wide and her mouth pressed tight like she’s fighting back tears. “I can’t intrude like that, Dexter. I—”
“You’re not intruding on shit. I invited you.” I stride through the water, ignoring the way it dirties my shoes, and grab a tall plant from where it’s drowning on the floor. “You can bring Catness. Bring every plant worth saving. I’ve got the room.”
She looks at me like I’ve just lost my damn mind.
Maybe I have.
Her throat tightens as she swallows, but then she squares her shoulders and nods. “Thank you. I appreciate it more than you know.”
“Go pack up,” I say briefly, glad that the flood hasn’t made it into her bedroom yet. “Grab everything you want for clothes and personals. I’ll start loading the car.”
“But you’ll get dirty in this crap,” she says as I prop the plant up in one arm, a little dirt already smudging my shirt. “I don’t want you to—”
“I can afford to ruin one outfit.” I close the distance, using my free hand to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. I don’t care how her breath stutters.
I don’t care if we’re in the middle of a disaster zone and it’s totally the wrong time, I want nothing more than to lose myself in her.
Goddammit.
“Dex—”
“Pack, sweetheart. Don’t make me say it again,” I growl, ignoring the way she’s looking at me, all new awareness and heat and temptation. “Get moving before I toss you over my shoulder and carry you to the car.”
Catness interrupts whatever she was about to say with another miserable wail, and she glances down with a frown.
“Okay!” she says. “Let me just get changed first.”
I want to tell her not to worry about the dress—I’ll buy her another one if she wants—but she disappears off to the bedroom while Catness looks on in total disgust.