Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
She sat inside the diner; her phone pressed to her ear while she ate a stack of pancakes with a salad on the side.
“Jasper is giving us the night.”
Kat looked up with a slightly annoyed expression on her face.
“I found us a suite at a nearby lodge, which means we both get a bed this time around. Ready to go?”
She’s still upset. “After I finish eating, sure.”
“Okay.” Her words were short but not clipped, enough for me to know that she was pissed.
I dug into the meatloaf and mashed potatoes like I hadn’t eaten all day, which I hadn’t because this was, technically, my lunch.
“You gonna tell me what I did to piss you off or you gonna pout all night?”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping to get a rise out of her, but it didn’t work.
“First of all, I don’t pout. Second, you don’t care so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
She sighed and pushed her plate away before she walked away from the booth, leaving me alone to finish my food.
What the fuck just happened?
She couldn’t really be that upset about me taking her keys, could she? I shrugged and dug into my food because Kat was a mystery I had never figured out. Why would I start now?
I took my time eating, figuring she would be back before I finished, but like I said, Kat was a mystery to me. Always had been. Seemed like she would always be a mystery just beyond my comprehension.
After the meal, I got up from the booth and looked outside. Kat sat behind the steering wheel; eyes glued to her phone. I paid the tab and went to the car.
“You plan on ignoring me for the next twenty-four hours?”
Kat looked up and blinked. “I have business to attend to, Terry. I came out here to charge my phone while I made some calls so you could eat your dinner in peace.”
Her tone wasn’t even annoyed or angry, it was bland.
Fucking bland.
“All right, let’s get to the hotel then.”
Without a word she started the engine and made the short drive to the hotel she’d booked. The suite, if you could call it that, wasn’t as big as we were hoping. Her jaw clenched tight as she took in the small suite, the small one-bedroom suite.
“All right.” She said the words simply as if she was doing her best to reign in her temper.
“Do we both still get a bed?” It was a dick thing to say, but I still couldn’t resist riling Kat up. Even when it didn’t work
She turned to me and shrugged; her chin notched high in the air.
“I can handle it if you can, Manning.” Her blue eyes held a challenge I couldn’t resist.
“I’ll try to keep my masculine urges to my side of the bed.” The sarcasm was thick, and I braced myself for her silver tongue.
But she said…nothing.
“Shotgun on the shower.”
Kat didn’t reply, so I grabbed the towels and toiletries she’d bought at some point between leaving the diner and making calls and locked myself inside the bathroom with a separate shower and bathtub. I cranked the water to ice cold because that’s what spending days on end with Kat did to a man. I refused to think about sharing a bed with Kat and the temptation it presented. She was pissed so nothing would happen.
Nothing will happen because I don’t want it to.
I tried to reason even as I stroked my cock until I exploded in the confines of the shower. The shower lasted much longer than needed, but I took my time. It was more important not to seem like a creeper than to keep her waiting.
Thirty minutes later, I stepped out of the bathroom and found Kat sitting cross legged in the middle of the bed, laptop in front of her. She looked up with a wide smile for the first time all day.
“This place has around-the-clock room service and guest services.”
“That’s great,” I said absently, trying to figure out why she was so excited. “But where are my clothes?”
Kat laughed. “Pajamas will be here in fifteen minutes. Our clothes will be laundered and returned in the morning, but first I need to rinse off so they only have to make one trip. Listen for the door and try not to shoot anyone.”
Ten minutes after the shower sounded, I tried to think of anything other than Kat naked in the other room with nothing more than a door between us. I closed my eyes, refusing to think about the water running down her body, the way the soap made her skin slick and soft.
“Fuck!”
Of course, that was the moment a knock sounded at the door, and I was forced to answer in nothing but a plush off-white towel. I wasn’t embarrassed, but I didn’t appreciate being in such a vulnerable position in front of a complete stranger.