Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
I’m taken aback by the kiss on my hand, by the way my hand feels in his. By his eyes on my face. By all of it.
While holding my breath, my feet move us toward the closest door. The door to his place.
His free hand moves to the small of my back the way it did in his nightclub a week ago, and then he lets go to reach ahead to touch a door sensor with his thumb. I hear it unlock, and then he opens and holds it for me. When I’m over the threshold, his hand lands on my lower back again. And I can’t stop my mind from focusing on the feel of his hand on the back of my jacket, wondering what it would feel like to have his hand on my bare skin again.
He grabs my hand again as we move down the long, swanky cream-colored marble-walled shiny-floored hallway toward an elevator. This entrance is obviously private. There were no other cars in any of the reserved spots that bordered the entrance, so I take it this is the building his father is re-purposing, and that Derek’s siblings are currently absent. The elevator is waiting, so Derek walks us in and presses the PH button on the panel. We take an express ride up with our hands still clasped together. And my heart is pounding hard.
Am I really about to do this? Am I really about to use the hall pass? It feels illicit. It feels like I’m a cheater. But Adam has been encouraging this.
Should I tell this insanely hot man why I’m doing this despite the diamond on my finger?
He’s a rich, insanely attractive man. But I don’t know the protocol for this sort of situation. Do I bring it up? Do I assume it’s understood?
My eyes are fixed on the elevator lights showing our ascent above the door, but I’m pretty sure his are on me.
Shit. Does he have condoms? Of course he’d have condoms. He’s a rich, attractive man.
Does he have a girlfriend? A fiancée? A wife?
Why didn’t I do a quick internet search on him?
I know why I didn’t. Because despite the fact that he’s crossed my mind plenty in the past week, I never expected this to happen so there was no point looking him up. I also didn’t want to become fixated on the idea of hooking up with him so of course I pushed him out of my mind every time I thought of him, which was more often than I’d care to admit. Except that time when I was in the shower and indulged a fantasy while I took care of my… ahem…needs.
The elevator halts and when the door opens, something ignites in my veins. His too, I think, because now he’s powerwalking and I’m jogging to keep up until we get to the second-to-last door on the left side of the elevator in a hallway that looks the same as the one on the ground floor. He puts his thumb to another sensor on this door and when I hear the click of the door it feels as ominous to me as the sound of a gun being cocked. Not that I’ve ever heard one of those in real life.
And another thought surfaces, too. The fact that it doesn’t matter if I go home tonight or not. Adam is spending the weekend at his brother’s place. I know he’s done it on purpose. He did kiss me before he left at four o’clock this afternoon, kissed me the same way he kissed me in front of everyone last Sunday, which probably wasn’t supposed to feel like being stabbed in the heart, but it did because he did it in front of his brother. I didn’t even fake a smile as Paul wheeled him out the front door toward his van.
I decide here and now that I won’t be thinking about Adam at all for the rest of whatever time I’m here in Derek’s penthouse apartment. I’m only here because Adam pushed this. And if I’m honest with myself, maybe I do want this, too. Because this man right here is the ultimate Hall Pass type. If I’m going to actually do this, why shouldn’t it be with an insanely attractive man who has put effort into pursuing me?
He opens the door and gestures for me to go ahead.
I take four or five steps into the dim, large, open-concept space that feels like a swanky hotel suite. There’s a great view from up here and the full-length windows show off that the sky is dappled with city lights. There’s a lamp lit in the corner beside a white leather sectional couch. I take in a large wall-mounted television, some monochrome art on the walls, the modern, spotless kitchen done in black, white, and chrome. There’s a glass dining table for four with tall black and silver chairs. The only splash of color in the space beyond the jewel-toned kitchen backsplash is a vase of colorful flowers in the middle of the table.