Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 81930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“We hardly know him. And we’ll find someone else if that’s what we want.” She thought they might be moving too fast.
He rolled onto his side, facing her. “Is there? I don’t know. I think maybe we should just stick with the two of us.”
Because he was scared of being rejected? Of falling for someone and losing them?
“Sometimes you have to take a risk. Even if your heart might get broken. Like I did.”
His face turned fierce. “But I would never hurt you. Never leave you. Ever. I’ve wanted you from the first day I met you, Isla.”
“Yeah? What took you so long, then?” she teased.
He slid her onto her back, then moved over her, pinning her to the bed.
“Do you know how much time I spent in my room, jacking off, seeing your face? It. Was. Agony. But for once in my life, I was determined to make sure I didn’t go too fast, didn’t scare you away. Because you were so important to me.”
She had rarely heard him speak like this. Normally, when things got serious, he started cracking jokes. Or he retreated into Little headspace.
Leaning down, he kissed her. “Love you, La-la.”
“I love you too.”
“It’s the two of us against the world. You’re my bestie, my ride-or-die, my sweetie. Always.”
“Always,” she whispered.
“I won’t allow anyone to hurt you,” he said.
“And I feel the same way about you. But we can’t let the first hurdle make us stumble.”
A slow grin crossed his face. “You got that off a fortune cookie, didn’t you?”
“What? No! How rude.” But she was grinning as she said it.
He lay down beside her on his back with a groan. “I still feel sick.”
She let out a deep breath. “Yeah. I know. Is Cullen expecting us to go to dinner with them?”
“I can’t do it. Not tonight.” Reaching over, he grabbed his phone and started to tap out a text. “Eating in tonight. If the room is a rockin’ don’t come a knockin’.”
“Marcus! You didn’t write that!”
“Sure I did.” He gave her a look like he didn’t know what the big deal was.
She groaned with her hands over her face. “How am I going to look at him tomorrow?”
“Sweetie, pretty sure he knows what goes on behind closed doors.”
“Yes, but you don’t need to tell him. He’s still my boss.”
“Not anymore. You’re fired, remember?” He rubbed his tummy. “Do you have any Tums?”
“Course I do. I always do.” She got off the bed and found her handbag. “And I’m not fired.”
“Sure are.”
“So I have to find a new job?” She put her hands on her hips as she glared down at him. He moved so he was sitting at the end of the bed. “Work for someone else?”
“What? No. I don’t want you working for someone else. I want you with me. Where I can keep an eye on you.”
Like she was the one who needed watching over. She hadn’t just eaten her weight in chocolate and candy. She handed him a Tums.
“To be clear, you still want me to do everything I did before? I just won’t get paid?” She wasn’t irritated by his assumptions. This was Marcus. He fixated on what he wanted and didn’t think about everything else.
Like how she was meant to live.
“No. I don’t want you to wash Cullen’s dirty socks and boxers anymore. But I do want you close.”
“And how will I live without a wage?”
His face brightened. “I’ll take care of all that.”
“Meaning, I’ll live with you, do whatever you want, and you’ll pay for everything?”
“Exactly.” He smiled.
“And what about what I want?”
His face fell. “You don’t want to be with me all the time?”
She climbed back onto the bed, straddling his lap. “I love being with you. But if we’re together all the time, we might get sick of each other. And sometimes you spend days working and barely communicating. I just… I might need something else as well.”
Frowning, he nodded. “All right. I get that. But I don’t want you working anywhere else. I’ll worry about you.”
That was so super sweet.
“But I also want you to be happy. This is a conundrum.”
She had to grin. “We’ll work it out.”
A sly look entered his eyes. “Is this our first fight?”
“I wouldn’t call this a fight,” she told him.
“Really? Because I’ve heard that make-up sex is the best.”
“You’re feeling up to that?” she asked with surprise.
He fell back on the bed with his arm over his eyes. “No! I’m miserable. But I really want to feel up to it.”
“Poor baby. Can I get you something? Do you want to get into your digger PJs and watch some cartoons?”
“If I watch cartoons, I need ice cream or sugary cereal, it’s the rules or something. Everyone knows that. And I just can’t.”
She had to hide a smile at his dramatics. He groaned again. This one sounded genuine. She hoped he really hadn’t made himself sick.