Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 76953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
To their credit, both Cain and Spike were flanking the crowd, their heads on a swivel, nothing about them seeming like they’d been drinking.
The music came back on, louder than before, drowning out the sounds of the women. And I tried to be relieved. All I could really feel, though, was disappointment.
Hours passed and, finally, the music cut as the women, I imagined, piled into the empty bedrooms, the prospect room, or the barracks-style room in the basement.
I prayed Gracie wasn’t in the latter of them. I didn’t want to have to walk past her looking all soft and sweet in bed when I eventually made my way down.
I decided to give myself another hour or two, just to make sure everyone was out cold.
But then I heard it.
The trap door pushing open.
Then there it was.
Her golden head.
Then her gorgeous face emerging.
“Hey,” she said, her voice small, shy.
“Hey,” I said, a warm sensation moving through my chest. Then, remembering the rules, asked, “What are you doing?”
“I, uh, like the view up here,” she said, a false note in her words. She got on her knees to scoot into the space, and I was at once painfully aware that she’d discarded her romper for one of the guys’ tees that was swimming on her but revealing way too much enticing skin on her legs. Enough to know she didn’t even have shorts on underneath.
“I’ll leave you to it,” I said, trying to get up. But I’d been sitting there for hours. Every bit of my body immediately rejected the decision to move.
Before I could fight through the pins and needles, though, Gracie shut and slid the lock on the trap door.
“You can stay,” she said, trying to play it off as she moved closer until she dropped down at my side. “Can you turn the light off so we can see the stars?” she asked, staring up at the glass ceiling.
The last thing this moment needed was more intimacy.
But I couldn’t turn down a simple request, either. So I reached over and flicked off the light, blanketing us in romantic fucking starlight.
Great.
“I would sleep up here if I lived here,” she said, smiling softly as she looked up.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking over, from studying her profile.
She didn’t seem drunk.
Her eyes were clear, wide open.
Her skin wasn’t as flushed as it had been earlier.
Maybe she hadn’t gone as hard at the bar as her cousins had. Which made sense for what I knew about Gracie, who was supposed to be one of the more responsible of the group, a little more cautious. She was more like the mom of the group. She had her fun, but she also seemed to feel the need to keep an eye on her cousins, to make sure they were all making good decisions.
“Did you have fun?”
“It was kind of more fun being here than at the bar. I’m not really a bar person.”
“Why not?”
“It just kind of takes away the intimacy of a party, I guess. But Layna is a lot more extroverted. And, well, a teensy bit of a flirt.”
“Not you?”
Why did I care?
“Not really my thing. And drunk guys are…”
She didn’t need to finish.
We all knew what drunk guys could be.
Creepy.
Annoying.
Dangerous.
“Did everyone pass out?”
“Most of them. Layna challenged Spike and Cain to a poker game, though.”
“Those poor fucks,” I said with a snort.
“I know. Did no one tell them that she is a professional poker player?”
“Dunno. Guess they’re finding out right about now, though.”
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” I asked as she let out a dramatically long yawn.
“I don’t know,” she said, the notes in her voice not quite landing true. “I tried,” she added. “But I couldn’t fall asleep.”
I could sense her wanting me to press.
And knew I couldn’t.
So I kept my damn focus forward.
The air felt like it was slowly getting thicker, harder to breathe in. I couldn’t tell if it was Gracie, or me, or what.
Then, suddenly, Gracie was moving.
Up onto her knees.
Then moving over to straddle me.
“Gracie,” I said, tone pained. “What are you doing?”
Her body tensed.
Her eyes went wide.
The sense of rejection practically vibrated off of her.
“Oh,” she yelped, her eyes suddenly looking glassy.
Like she was going to cry.
“I, uh, sor—” she started.
But my hands moved out of their own volition, sinking into her hips, keeping her in place before she moved away.
“Did I read this wrong?” she asked, voice tiny, unsure.
Read it wrong?
I was already fucking hard.
Just from sitting next to her.
“No, baby. But this—”
“No buts,” she said, voice a whisper. “Please? Just for right now?”
I was going to object.
In another second.
But then she was lifting up.
Then her soft hands were framing my face.
And then her lips hesitantly pressed to mine.
Any chance of stopping what was happening here melted away as a sweet little whimper escaped her at the first press of the kiss.