Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“It’s for being an idiot. That man is obsessed with you. You should see the way he used to stare at you while you were working. The man is a total heart-eye emoji. It’s both adorable and disgusting. If I didn’t love you two so much, I’d hate you.”
I shoveled a forkful of pasta into my mouth, thinking as I chewed.
“And since when are you the type to avoid hard shit?”
Never. I’d never shied away from what I wanted. But then I’d never been this terrified of losing something.
Someone.
Fuck, what was I doing? I wanted Ryder. I had Ryder. Was I going to sit on my ass wallowing while the universe tore us apart? Was I going to let his family’s wishes, ones he disagreed with, destroy what we’d built these past months?
Hell no.
My heart raced as hope bubbled in my veins. I had several tutoring sessions this afternoon and evening, something I’d picked up for some extra cash during my three-week break between course sessions. The second I finished, I’d get my ass over to his office so we could end this nonsense.
I looked at Trevor, who watched me with a beaming grin. “I see the lightbulb has finally switched on.”
“Yeah.” My throat thickened. “Thanks, Trev. I needed this kick in the ass to stop me from floundering.”
He shrugged, then got a faraway look in his eyes. “It’s always easier to see a way out when you’re not the one in the thick of it.”
“Trev…” It was my turn to grab his hands. “I know you aren’t big on diving into your stuff, but I hope you know I’m here if you ever need an ear. I don’t judge, and I wouldn’t betray your confidence, even to Ryder. You can trust me.”
He grinned and shimmied as though shaking off his funk. “I do know, Ally. And I trust you completely. I promise it has nothing to do with you, I’m just not ready to talk about my shit. But I know who to go to when I am ready. Okay?”
I nodded. “Okay. I want you to be happy, Trev. That’s all.” Sometimes I wondered if he’d spend the rest of his life pining for a man he would never have. Trevor was head over heels in love with our older, sophisticated, and filthy-rich boss. Parker owned Top Shelf nightclub as well as other lucrative businesses in Boston and moved in a crowd of extravagant movers and shakers I’d never mesh with, but people my boyfriend could mix and mingle around without batting an eye. Parker had to be aware of Trevor’s infatuation. We joked it was the worst-kept secret at Top Shelf, but he’d never acted on it. Never so much as glanced in Trevor’s direction with anything less than professional interest as far as I knew.
The saddest part was the revolving door of cute, tight-bodied twinks Parker paraded in and out of his office. Men who couldn’t hold a candle to Trevor let us all know that Trevor was indeed our boss’s type. Parker had a strict code he followed, which included never hooking up with employees, but his disinterest in Trevor had to be more complicated than that, or my friend would have quit on his first night.
“I know you do, Ally, and that’s why I love you.” He grabbed for a small, fancy-looking sandwich. “Now, enough heavy shit. Let’s eat so you can get to your tutoring sessions, then get to your man.”
I grinned and stuffed another bite of pasta salad in my mouth. For the first time in weeks, I felt an excited anticipation for what was to come. Even last night, with the promise of a celebration, I’d had the invisible weight of helplessness pressing down on my shoulders. But I was the opposite of helpless. Screw Ryder’s family and their demands. It was time we grabbed our lives and our relationship by the horns and rode off into the sunset together.
The mood lightened considerably after Trevor knocked some sense into me. We chatted about safer topics while we polished off the delicious meal. He was a font of Top Shelf gossip, filling me in on the drama that always seemed to go over my head while I was working.
By the time I left, I was full of food and anticipation. My tutoring sessions dragged on as life always did when you had somewhere you’d rather be. Four sessions with some breaks in between took me well into the evening and past dinnertime, but I wasn’t hungry, at least not for food. I only craved one thing, and it had two legs, gorgeous blond hair, a big heart, and one hell of an addictive cock.
I parked my old junker in the executive parking lot among the BMWs, Teslas, and Mercedes preferred by the company's high-ranking administrators.