Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 138526 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138526 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
We both spring up, landing on our feet and pointing two cans each of silly string at the man behind his desk.
“Don’t. You. Dare.”
“GET HIM!” I yell with a laugh and we press the nozzles, shooting green, pink, orange, and yellow sticky string at him. The strands fly with a hiss through the air, hitting his hair, his face, his shoulders, his chest, some lands on his desk. Oh, this is going to be messy.
He covers his face with his hands until he’s standing and then starts to chase his daughter around his office. There is silly string everywhere. I kind of like it though.
I get his back as she screams and scrambles under the table, the spry little thing that she is.
“You are so dead,” he says to me, pointing at me but I just spray it at his finger.
He lunges for my laughing form, a huge smile on his face so I twist to keep the cans away from him but my strength is no match. Arms come around me, trapping me to his chest as I squirm for freedom, but he turns one of the cans and gets me right in the face, all over my glasses and hair. Just like on Christmas.
Maria charges, ready to defend my honor when Mr. C hurries, “There’s twenty dollars in it if you switch teams!”
“WHAT?” I shriek and give Maria a pleading look as her father holds my arms behind me.
She shrugs her shoulders. “Sorry, Rose… it’s twenty bucks.”
I hold my breath when she shoots me directly in the face, much to the joy of her asshole father. Managing to wriggle my arms free, I turn and hide my face in his chest, clinging to his string-covered shirt for dear life.
“I’m out,” Maria sighs, shaking the empty cans.
Mine ran out seconds after Ezra used them against me. Thank God.
We stand there panting, bodies humming from the high of the fight.
I lean back and remove my glasses, using the bottom of Mr. Conti’s shirt to clean them. My knuckles graze the bare skin of his solid abdomen and heat shoots up my arm. I gulp and focus on cleaning them with minimal touching. While I’m doing so, he tips my head back with the side of his finger under my chin and forces me to focus on his face. He’s blurry but I can make out the outline of his features for the most part. I see his lips open at the same time as mine.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without your glasses,” he murmurs and the hand that tipped my head back curls around my cheek and ear. I shiver when his thumb strokes away a piece of string and his minty, sweet breath hits my lips. We’re so close. Our bodies are flush with each other.
I can feel his heart beating in tandem with mine. His heat, his smell, the way he’s gazing into my unfocused eyes…
It’s like a drug. I feel high. I’ve never felt like this before.
“Daddy, I can’t get it out of my hair,” Maria calls from the bathroom, startling us both and breaking the moment.
I move away from him after putting my glasses back on and assist his daughter in the bathroom.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” I say, looking at the state of us both in the mirror. “It’ll wash out.”
“I can’t go to soccer practice like this,” she whines, frowning at herself, making her nostrils flare comically. “They’ll all laugh at me.”
“Probably,” I reply and groan when she digs her elbow into my ribs. It doesn’t hurt, it just makes me choke.
“Come on,” Mr. C calls and then knocks on the door. “Let’s go get us all cleaned up and kick some Bentley school soccer baby butts.”
“YEEEESSSSSS!” Maria cheers, arms in the air.
“You coming?” he asks me politely. “You can take a shower.” When I hesitate, he quickly adds, “The house is empty. It’ll just be us.”
I know there was no hidden meaning to his words, but I can’t help feeling it anyway. In my groin and down my thighs. Basically, all over my body.
“I shouldn’t,” I mutter, looking him up and down one last time. It’s so easy to get lost in a man when he’s as handsome as Mr. C. But I’m not about to put myself in a situation with him where I might make a fool of myself or either of us might…
I’m not even going to think about it.
“Can I meet you there?” I ask softly, turning back the way I came.
“You’re going?” Maria cries.
“I won’t be long.” I leave before either of them can stop me, putting as much distance between me and them as possible.
“What the fuck?” Pax hisses, grabbing me as I exit and pulling me towards the elevators. My arm aches where he’s squeezing it. “Do you really think it’s okay that you’re running around in another man’s office screaming and laughing like that?”