Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Feeling out of place and like a complete idiot, she bounced Snaggles up and down on her knee.
What came over her next, she had no idea.
But she placed Snaggles down with his wide mouth around Cash’s arm and his fake teeth against his skin. “Grr, grr.”
And now she wasn’t sure who was more tense or more shocked. Her or Cash.
Oh. My. God.
What had Snaggles just done? And how did she get him to undo it? Was there a time machine close by? Was this all a bad dream?
It had to be a bad dream. That was it.
Oh, thank goodness for that. She was dreaming. All she needed to do was wake up.
She closed her eyes, then opened them again. Nothing.
“Addie?” Cash asked. “Are you all right?”
Close. Open. Close. Open. Oh God. Still stuck in the dream, which was fast becoming a nightmare.
She was starting to feel sick from how quick she was opening and closing her eyes.
“Addie, Addie, what’s wrong?” Cash grasped hold of her arm and shook her slightly. “Addie, are you feeling all right? Shit, are you having some sort of seizure?”
It’s all right. This is still a bad dream. None of this was real.
Reaching over, she pinched his arm.
“What did you do that for?” He stared down at his arm in surprise. “First, Snaggles bites me, and now you pinch me? Have I done something?”
She shook her head. What could she do to wake up? Oh, she knew.
She put the mug down. Reaching over, she placed her hand around the back of his neck, before drawing him in and kissing him briefly.
Yeah, that always did it. A kiss always woke someone up, right?
But when she drew back, the dream hadn’t gone. She wasn’t suddenly awake in her bedroom.
He was still there.
She was still there.
She’d just kissed Cash Savage.
This wasn’t a dream.
Shit.
34
Cash had no idea what was going on.
He sat very still, staring at Addie.
Who had just kissed him.
Addie. Kissed. Him.
Sure, it wasn’t the greatest kiss ever, just a brief press of her lips against his. But it had still made his body sit up and pay attention.
More attention than before, anyway.
Because it seemed like whenever he was in her presence, all he could see was her.
Touching her felt so right and that kiss felt like it was everything.
“This isn’t a dream,” she said croakily.
And it turned out that that kiss wasn’t everything to her, because she thought she was dreaming. Although, did that mean that she wanted to kiss him? And she’d only been brave enough because she thought this was a dream?
Hmm, that was a possibility.
“No,” he said. “It’s not.”
“Oh, God. I kissed Cash Savage, and it’s not a dream. Oh, God.”
He had to grin at the way she said his full name.
“Do you think you’re in a nightmare now?” he asked.
She nodded.
Ouch. He probably shouldn’t have asked that if he couldn’t handle the answer.
But the fact that she thought kissing him was a nightmare damaged his ego.
And his ego was generally pretty robust.
“Oh, no! I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, her voice cutting off at the end as she started to cough.
Frowning, he picked up her drink and pressed it to her mouth. She stared at him with wide eyes.
Yeah, he should probably pull back. He was being a bit too forceful.
But Addie had kissed him.
Even if she thought it was a nightmare.
Talk about mixed messages. Was she attracted to him? Did she want him? Had this morning been about something else?
Maybe it had been about her being scared. Or nervous. Or anxious.
It wasn’t like he’d had a proper conversation with her about either of their needs. All he’d done was claim ownership of her.
Which wasn’t exactly a normal thing to do. But then he’d never claimed to be a normal guy, had he?
Life was short and you had to take what you wanted.
Am I claiming to want Addie?
That . . . that wasn’t right. She was just a temporary interest. That was all. He shook that thought from his head. His life wasn’t made for someone like Addie. When he found someone he wanted to be with, she was going to have to be tough and independent.
Right?
“Drink,” he ordered.
To his surprise, she opened her mouth and let him pour some of the warm honey drink in. She swallowed with a grimace. Yeah, her throat was still hurting her.
“Thanks,” she said as he put the mug down again.
“No talking,” he told her roughly, getting out his phone. “If you have anything to say, use this.”
He opened up the text-to-speech app that he’d downloaded onto his phone.
Addie took the phone from his hand, her fingers brushing against his. He could feel them trembling slightly and they were cool.
“You need to go inside. You’re cold.”
She shook her head.
“No? Why not?” he asked.
Putting the mug down, she typed into his phone.