Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 82651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“What are you doing here?” Lucas snaps at his sister as he comes to the door. I know he told me her name before, but fuck if I can remember it.
She doesn’t even jolt at her brother’s harsh tone but lazily slides her eyes to him. She gives him a bright smile and then pushes right past me to enter the house. “I’m staying.”
As she moves by me, she pats me on the arm and says in a silky, purring voice, “Can you bring those in for me?”
Her touch is light, her scent is sweet, and I have no reaction one way or the other. Because I don’t let myself react to women like that.
Ever.
“You’re not staying, Simone,” Lucas says with frustration. “You said you were going back to school.”
So her name’s Simone?
I suppose the name fits her. Goes well with her pretty French Canadian accent.
I turn to watch the siblings square off, still holding the door open in case Lucas throws her out.
“Changed my mind,” she says firmly, crossing her arms over her chest, staking her position. “And I can’t stay long term at Max’s because I’m taking up one of the boys’ rooms and he needs it back. I like this area, I love my brothers, so I’m staying.”
Lucas straightens, squares his shoulders, and says back just as firmly, “Not here you’re not.”
Rather than engage in a pissing contest with her brother, Simone turns to me and actually bats her eyelashes. I can’t help but notice how long and dark they are, framing those eyes that seem heated when she looks at me.
“You don’t mind, do you, big guy?” she asks me, her accent getting heavier, maybe a little silkier as she tries to flirt with me.
It does nothing for me, frankly, but I’m not getting in the middle of this.
I shrug. “I don’t give a fuck, but you’re not getting my room.”
“You’re not getting mine either,” Lucas says quickly.
“It’s settled then,” Simone says with a bright smile as she walks with swaying hips to the couch. She drops down on it, and there go my hopes of watching the news. “I totally don’t mind sleeping here.”
I make a mental note to pull my bedroom TV out of storage. I hadn’t bothered with it, but looks like I won’t be enjoying the TV out here.
Lucas merely gives a frustrated sigh of acceptance, his head lowering in defeat. I feel a little sorry for the dude, so I do him a solid and bring the luggage in off the porch.
“Be a sweetie,” Simone actually purrs at me with another flutter of her eyelashes and a pursing of her lips, “and put those in Lucas’s room so they won’t be in the way.”
I don’t even spare her a glance, but merely drop her bags just inside the door, kicking it shut behind me. With a resigned sigh of my own, I figure I should just head to the gym for a workout. I push past Lucas to the small hallway that leads to the two bedrooms.
“I’m Simone, by the way,” his sister calls out to me. “Lucas’s little sister.”
I don’t respond, and I know it’s rude, but again…don’t care. I step into my bedroom and shut the door behind me. If there was a lock on the door, I’d turn it. Not because I don’t feel safe or secure, but because I can tell Simone’s a pushy sort of girl, and I wouldn’t put it past her to barge in and demand conversation.
The house is small, and even with my door closed, I can hear Lucas say, “What the fuck are you doing, Simone? This is crazy even by your standards.”
I can’t help but smile at that. Apparently my original estimation that the woman on the porch was crazy holds true.
“He’s kind of rude, don’t you think?” she responds, talking about me.
This actually makes me snicker. It’s not the first time I’ve been called rude.
I’ve also been described as closed off.
Introverted.
Asshole.
Weird.
As I rifle through my drawers for a pair of workout shorts, I listen without shame to their conversation, just a little curious why his sister is here.
“Not as rude as you showing up on my porch with luggage saying you’re staying here without asking,” Lucas retorts, and adds, “and not as rude as you deciding not to go back to school after you agreed it was the best thing for you.”
“You don’t understand—”
“What I understand,” he practically yells at her, “is that you are less than thirty days from graduating with a bachelor’s degree from a fucking Ivy League school, and if you go back now, you will not fuck that up. It is absolutely ridiculous for you to think you can step away when you’re this close.”
Now that’s interesting. I can’t remember if Lucas ever told me about his sister, but she’s apparently a smarty-pants. Ivy League educated and all.