Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“Okay, what’s so special about his bed?” I asked. “And by the way, I know you’ve been doing it in his bed and yours since I got here. The walls aren’t that thin, my friend.”
I hated the pang of envy that gnawed at me as I watched my friend’s face light up while he continued to relive whatever he’d been doing with Xavier for the last several hours.
“His bed,” Brooks said, his eyes meeting mine expectantly like I was supposed to understand what he was talking about. “Before you got here, he was, um… he moved out of this house and into the foreman’s house he’d been working on.”
My friend’s joy slipped away for a moment. I knew the time he was talking about. It was the reason I’d flown to Wyoming in the first place. Brooks hadn’t given me the specifics, but I’d known Xavier had hurt him deeply.
“The little shack in the woods behind the barn?” I asked.
“It’s not a shack,” Brooks corrected. “He’s fixing it up.”
I hadn’t seen the place but since we were straying off topic, I didn’t really care what we called it. “So that’s where you and he—”
Brooks nodded, that expression of joy back and shining brightly.
“Okay, so he fucked you in his house for the first time.”
“No… yes… no…” Brooks sputtered. “The first time we were together was in his house but not the bed.”
“Got it,” I responded with a nod. “Making a mental note to come back to that a bit later,” I added.
Brooks gave me another shove and then started to get off the bed. I pulled him back down. “Okay, okay, Juliet. Tell me all about you and your Romeo’s special day.”
“We never did it in a bed until after you got here.”
I lifted my eyebrows at that. I opened my mouth to ask what role I had played in their sex games, but Brooks covered my mouth with his hand again. “Before he came to that motel to find me, we’d only done it a couple of times and it was just sex, you know?”
I doubted any moment the two men had been together had been “just sex,” but I held my tongue and merely nodded.
“Since then, we’ve made love in all these different places, but today he took me to his house. His house.”
“It changed things,” I offered because I understood what Brooks was trying to explain now.
Brooks nodded. “I thought it was going to be like the first time, but at some point he’d put a mattress on the floor in the master bedroom. There wasn’t any furniture in the house before. There were also all these candles all around the room.” He sighed contentedly.
“He let you in,” I said simply. Xavier had taken Brooks to a place that represented Xavier’s future. Making love in that place gave Brooks a hopeful glimpse into a future he wanted desperately to include him.
I automatically opened my mouth to warn Brooks not to read too much into Xavier’s romantic overture, but then I shut it. I couldn’t protect Brooks’s heart, no matter which way this whole thing ended up playing out. The most I could do was be there for him regardless.
“You really do love him, don’t you?” I asked, more out of wonderment than anything else. I’d had plenty of sex and even what I’d thought had been a real relationship until I’d learned the guy was married with two kids and a third on the way. Before I learned the truth about the asshole’s marital status, I’d been certain he was it for me, but after I’d kicked him out of my bed and out of my life, I’d realized it wasn’t love I’d been feeling. I’d been waiting for the fairy-tale ending, but between the guys who only wanted me for one night and the fucker who’d lied to me, that little sliver of hope had gotten stomped on so badly that I wasn’t sure if it was truly there anymore.
Damn hot cowboys with their stupid hats and hot asses in snug jeans and their caveman mentality that couldn’t even help them recognize one gender from another.
Brooks didn’t say anything, but he did nod. His smile faded. I could practically see his own ray of hope being crushed by doubt and insecurity. If this thing ended badly, I knew it would break him.
“Sweetie, I’ve seen the way that man looks at you. And that shit at the motel…” I shook my head slowly back and forth. “Poor sap looked like his heart was gonna break then and there when he realized the hot little number you were about to do in that motel room—”
“Jules,” Brooks said in mock irritation before flopping on his back again.
“Okay, okay,” I said as I sidled closer to Brooks so I’d be able to look him in the eye. “You guys might have a lot standing in your way, but I don’t think being in love is going to be an issue for either of you.”