Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
All facts. But she’d not given up and he admired the hell out of her for that.
“The ball is going to continue through the swing, naturally. Like you’re walking.”
“Doubt that,” she snipped before heaving a frustrated sigh.
“Brief rundown, then I’ll walk you through one.”
“And you didn’t do this for me during the first, um, frame, why?”
He settled his lips against her cheek. “I remember someone mouthing something sassily about how hard could it be to throw a ball down a lane.”
“Good thing someone learned her lesson about being so cocky.”
“I for one am happy to be of some assistance. I mean, the fact I get to stand with my arms around you, I don’t give a damn about the game.” She stiffened and he shook his head, refusing to let her get into her head about this. Not tonight. “Pay attention. Move with me.”
“Bet you say that to all the women.”
“First time.” Making sure his thighs were at the backs of her legs, he got ready to move her for the four steps, using their laced right hands to mimic the motion of the ball. “Here we go.”
“Before you start this, when the ball careens out of my hand because I throw it at you, I want to apologize.”
He burst out laughing, pulling the attention of those around them. “You’re apologizing for something you’re going to claim is an accident? It wouldn’t be one if you throw it at me.”
“First time.” She wriggled her shoulders. “Show me.”
Lips to her shoulder, he pressed a quick kiss to her skin. “One.” He moved her forward, pushing her right arm into the swing at the same time.
“One,” she echoed.
Other leg forward and the ball arm went into the down swing. He pushed her left arm out to the side to help her balance. “Two.”
“Two.” Her voice was becoming breathy.
At the end of that step the ball was by her right leg.
“Three,” he whispered in her ear, continuing the ball into the backswing so it was at the top of that motion when the third step was completed.
“Right.”
“Fourth step.” He encouraged her to move her arm forward. He lowered his hand from hers and placed it on her thigh. “We slide this leg now and make this adjustment. And when the ball passes your ankle, you’re going to release it. Not where it would come flying at me.”
“You’re used to balls flying at your face.”
He almost stumbled but just held her thigh tighter. “I think you’re trying to kill me.”
“Not even close. There are a lot of things I think about doing to you. Killing you isn’t one of them.”
Heat pushed through him. “Care to share?”
“No,” she said with an adamant shake of her head. “Definitely not. In fact, we’re going to forget I even said that. Walk me through it once more? Then I’m going to do this.”
He had a hard time pulling his attention from her lips as she spoke. “Right.” Linc didn’t doubt she would do it. Hell, this woman didn’t need his help but he wasn’t about to deny himself the raw pleasure of being tucked so close to her.
And he did. They even did one trial with her holding the ball. Then he went to his beer and put it to his lips for a much-needed drink. While watching Emma set herself up to try this on her own, he worked on calming his own pulse.
Fuck, the woman had no clue how sexy she truly was. He got it. She thought she was overweight and frumpy. She viewed herself as an uneducated single mother who no one would want.
Not at all what he saw when he looked at her. Emma Henricksen had one of the sharpest minds he’d ever known. Maybe she didn’t have a piece of paper saying she’d completed a certain set of courses, but the woman was incredible. And her curves made him hard all the time.
Her jeans cupped her ass in a way that made him jealous. The light green shirt she wore pulled out the teasing reddish strands in her hair.
Yet it was far more than that. Her heart was pure.
Her form needed more work but the ball flew from her hand and rolled down the lane. He smiled as he watched her hands at her sides with their crossed fingers. Knees bent, she watched the ball creep closer to the ten pins waiting at the end.
One pin.
That’s what got knocked down but from her screech of joy it was as if it had been a strike.
“Linc! I did it. I hit one and it fell over!” She whipped around and lunged toward him.
His daddy didn’t raise a fool. And he held out his arms to grab her and pull her close. She wrapped around him and he pushed his nose into her neck, inhaling. Around them, he could hear the younger kids making comments and he refused to respond.