Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
“No, but you are the best part of waking up.”
Cole groaned, but in truth he loved JB’s weird sense of humor. “Do the other guys think it’s weird that you’re now stopping every morning for second breakfast?”
JB lifted his head and pulled back enough to look Cole in the eye. “First, I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks. I’m the boss. I do what I want.”
“That’s fair.”
“And second, I work damn hard and need food to sustain me. Second breakfast is a brilliant idea.”
“True.”
“And thirdly—”
“I don’t think that’s a word.”
JB narrowed his eyes at him. “It is. And thirdly, I want to reiterate, I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks.”
“Clearly.”
“Are you complaining about sharing breakfast with me?”
“No,” Cole whispered against JB’s lips before stealing another kiss. He broke it off to keep the kiss from pulling them into the bedroom. “But…”
“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.”
“I’m not a horse.”
JB flashed him a wicked grin that sent the blood rushing to his dick. Yeah, he wasn’t getting anything done this morning. “And yet I rode you like a goddamn champ last night.”
“What the hell were we even talking about?”
“It sounded like you were going to say you regretted breakfast with me.”
Cole snorted. “Never. I was thinking that I need to start shifting my schedule and getting up earlier. It’s already nine o’clock in Cincinnati. On a normal day, I would have been in the office at least an hour already.”
“Does everyone get in at eight?”
Cole shook his head and reluctantly released JB. His coffee had finished brewing and he needed the caffeine. The man in front of him was already too sharp. “Support staff are usually in between eight and nine. Unless weird things have been happening to keep us late, that includes the tech support team. The bodyguards have a looser timetable because of their various assignments. Andrei is always in between seven thirty and eight. Rowe and Noah come in around nine.”
“Then you’re fine. You’ve been working late recently. Plus, it’s Saturday.”
A disgruntled noise left his throat. “Yeah, but I hate when things pop up because I’ve been slow to log on. I won’t leave my team hanging.” Enough of their bodies were still touching that Cole could feel JB stiffen at his words, and he wished he could immediately take them back.
It had been three days since their last talk about talking things one step at a time, but Cole hadn’t been able to make any decision about his future. He couldn’t figure out his next step. If he left Cincinnati, did he leave Ward Security? Yes, they were making the remote thing work, but it had been introduced as a temporary solution. They’d never intended to make this a permanent thing.
He pushed on, trying to force them both past the moment. “Things are starting to get busy there. Quinn had been working some late nights recently with me. I need to start putting in some regular hours to help them out, regardless of what Rowe says about vacation time. Quinn, Gidget, and I are a team. You can understand that, right?”
“No, I totally understand that,” JB quickly said, clearly forcing a smile on his lips. But that flash of brightness never reached his eyes. “Trust me, I know what it means to be dependable for your team. I know you’re dedicated to them. Otherwise, Rowe would never have kept you around.” JB paused and licked his lips, his gaze darting away to a point just over Cole’s shoulder. “But I was wondering if you’ve given any more thought to—”
JB’s words were interrupted by a loud banging on the front door. JB swore and crossed to answer it, giving Cole a brief respite. He could guess what JB was going to ask—had Cole given any more thought to staying on the ranch?
And the truth was that it had been pretty much all Cole had thought about for the past few days. He’d thought about it enough that he’d started looking into the logistics of it all, double-checking JB’s bandwidth, listing the computer equipment he would need, and the brainstorming problems that might occur because he wasn’t physically present in the office. He’d even calculated travel times if he had to get to Cincinnati fast. It wasn’t good.
But if he stayed, did it make sense to even try to keep this job when someone better than him could do it from Ward Security? Was he stealing an opportunity from someone else?
Not that he wanted to care about that. He loved his job. He loved his team. He loved all of his coworkers. He didn’t want to let go of that life.
Yet, he was really falling in love with this life he’d been living here. There was a predictable peace to life on the ranch with its little sprinklings of chaos. He enjoyed the sense of camaraderie that was so similar to what he found at Ward Security. And he’d even taken a peek at some of the computer systems that JB used to track all their data. There were a few ways he could help improve them, but he hadn’t mentioned it to JB because he didn’t want to stick his nose into business that wasn’t his. He was excited to see Alexander Ranch flourish under JB’s leadership.