Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
When I turned, she was squatted down on her haunches as she held her hand out to the cat.
“She’s hungry if you want to feed her,” I said. “Can’s in the cupboard beside the microwave.”
“I thought I saw you get it out of the fridge?” she asked.
“I usually give her half a can in the morning and half in the evening, but she’s been grouchy about not getting to go outside. Or maybe I just feel guilty. But I’m giving her the full can in the morning and in the evening.”
“Spoiled,” she said as she walked to the counter and leaned up to reach for the cabinet pull. “How’s the construction coming?”
“Slow,” I admitted. “But I have no clue. I wasn’t able to get up there today. I had a lot of catching up to do.”
She blushed. “I’m sorry for keeping you from your work.”
I moved in until she was bare inches from me, wrapping my arm around her upper leg, right where her ass met her thigh, and tugged her the rest of the way. Our entire bodies were touching from chest to knee, and there was no way that she could miss the erection that was filling up the front of my jeans.
“Did I say I wanted an apology?” I asked. “I don’t do things I don’t want to do, Bernice.”
She bit her lip. “Is that right?”
I nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Now, let’s talk about how you found out it was my birthday yesterday, and then you didn’t tell me that it was your birthday today.”
She flushed bright red with embarrassment.
“I, uh…” She hesitated. “I just don’t like to celebrate it.”
I knew that.
A good stalker would know these kinds of things.
That was probably why I missed the date.
She never celebrated it, so of course it would never occur to me to note the date.
But that time had passed.
We would be celebrating from now on.
“You do now,” I teased as I tucked a few stray locks of hair behind her ear.
Ones that’d escaped from her perfect hairstyle from this morning.
“Next year,” she suggested.
“No, now,” I disagreed.
“Now?”
I lifted her skirt again. “Did I tell you how much I like this skirt?”
“No,” she breathed.
“I do,” I said. “Easy access. Plus…”I trailed off when I found out that she had leggings underneath the skirt.
“Not so easy when I actually wear the pants I’d planned on putting under them.” She giggled. “I left them off this morning when I came to give you the cupcake. Just in case.”
I grinned, holding her skirt high with one hand and tugging the leggings down the length of her body with the other.
She stepped out of the leggings, which just so happened to take her panties with them, and kicked them off to the side.
My hands met the warm flesh of her thighs as I smoothed my hands up to her waist, letting the skirt drop from my hold.
“That’s better.”
She leaned in, her lips only inches from mine, and said, “What would you call what we’re doing, Hux?”
“You mean, a relationship?” I asked. “Because that’s what it is. A relationship.”
“We went from never talking—at least on your end—to a relationship in a blink and a half. Usually there’s some talking that happens beforehand.”
“We talked.”
“About the show that we were watching,” she countered.
I swung her around and into my arms. “Why does there have to be a rule on what you have to talk about, say, or do? I like your company. You like mine. And we’re both in agreement that my mom is a douchebag. I’ve been watching you for months.” Try years. “And I like what I saw. Maybe I was just waiting to grow a pair.”
“You’re the most confident man I’ve ever seen.” She leveled a look at me. “You were a playboy before I came around.”
I shrugged. “Were being the operative word.”
She ran her finger along the shape of my lips. “I’ve been cheated on three times.”
I didn’t reply, only squeezed her tight.
“I don’t want to ever go through that again, Hux,” she admitted. “If that’s where you lean, I’d rather know now.”
I placed her on the counter and bracketed her legs with my hands.
“I’d never do that to you, Bernice,” I promised. “Plus, I don’t like many people. Women included. That sounds like a nightmare. Not only because it would be wrong, but because your brother would castrate me, then deep fry my balls and eat them.”
She wrinkled her nose up at me in disgust.
“I was only waiting for the right woman to come around.” I smoothed my hand up the length of her thigh, causing her skirt to ride up slightly thanks to my calluses catching on the fabric.
“And you think you found her with me?” she asked vulnerably.
“I know I did,” I said. “Who else is going to put up with me treating her like crap for the first few months that I knew her? Then bring me birthday cupcakes when I didn’t tell her my birthday and help me cut up meat when we both know that you hate it.”