Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
She still didn’t know what that meant.
However, she was too scared to ask.
He leaned in and she thought he was going to kiss her.
Finally. Their first kiss kept replaying in her mind and she wanted a repeat.
Wait. Where did those thoughts come from?
But he didn’t kiss her lips. Instead, he kissed her forehead, then the tip of her nose before pulling away.
That tease!
Then he drew back and opened the front door, gesturing her forward.
“Good night, Isabelle. Sleep well.”
Right . . . like she was going to do that now!
Walking into the house, she shut the door behind her and turned to find Loki sitting on the sofa.
She could tell he was trying to act casual, but he clearly felt anything but relaxed. He was holding a beer and she could hear the sounds of a football game on TV. He turned the volume off as she grew closer, his eyes narrowing.
“Good night, Tink?”
“Um, yeah. It was okay. The steak was good. We should try it sometime. I hadn’t had steak in ages.”
“I can cook you steak.”
“Okay. Good.”
This was awkward. She sat on the sofa next to him and stared at the screen.
“Cold out?”
She glanced over at him, then down at herself.
“Oh, shit! I’ve still got his jacket on!” Jumping up, she ran to the door. Well, she attempted to run to the door, but Loki got up and grasped her around the waist, stilling her.
Then he sat down and plopped her on his lap.
Umm. What was he doing?
Sure, he’d held her in this lap last night when she was upset. But he never just casually pulled her onto his knees like this.
Grabbing Remy’s jacket, he threw it to one side.
“Hey! I need to give that back.”
“He’s long gone by now, Tink.”
Shoot, he wasn’t wrong. Which meant she’d have to get his jacket back to Remy.
Oh. Well played, Mr. Madison. Well played.
Loki kissed the top of her head, before settling her down next to him. Then he put his arm around her shoulders and turned the volume of the game up again.
Okay, so they weren’t going to talk about the fact that he’d just cuddled her on his lap? And kissed the top of her head?
Nope? Nothing. Crickets.
Well, all right then.
Denial it was. She closed her eyes.
“It’s all going to be all right, Tink,” he told her.
Sure. They both kept saying that. But she didn’t see how.
Could she go back to her uncomplicated life now?
Right. The one where you were lonely and sad?
Hmm. Maybe complicated had its place.
22
Isa stared at her SUV.
It looked just the same as before. Better, even, since it was shiny and clean.
She opened the door but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t get in it.
Her breathing grew faster and the world around her swam.
Great. She was having a panic attack over the idea of driving her car.
Just. Freaking. Perfect.
This was her life now. She was a mess.
“Easy, Tink. Just breathe. In. Then out. That’s it. And again.” A warm body pressed up behind her. One arm wrapped around her waist while the other one was placed between her breasts.
“Breathe in. Hold. One, two. Now out. That’s it. Do it again. you have this. Well done. Breathe in. Good. Now out.”
Gradually, her racing heart slowed and her breathing eased up.
That was terrifying. Her legs grew weak and Loki held her up. Then he turned her and clasped her tight against him. When he lifted her up, she wrapped her legs around his waist.
Carrying her inside, he kept hold of her as he grabbed his phone. He was speaking but she couldn’t really hear what he was saying through the whooshing in her ears.
Urgh. She needed to get moving. It was Wednesday, which meant there was a staff meeting.
She hated staff meetings, they sucked. But they were mandatory. And if she didn’t hurry up, she was going to be late.
“Ki-Ki, I’ve gotta go to work.”
She winced, closing her eyes. Drat. This wasn’t the time for her to be Little Isa-Bee. Yeah, she had a nickname for her Little. It wasn’t weird, right?
It was time to be Isabelle.
Cool, calm, and collected professional.
She was going to get in that car and drive to work.
Or . . . maybe she was going to sit in Loki’s lap and play hooky. She wasn’t sure at this stage.
“No, you don’t.”
“I does.”
Drat. There she went again.
“You’re taking the day off,” he said firmly.
“I can’ts. I gots too much work to do.” And she didn’t want to do any of it.
She was so tired. All she wanted was to crawl back into bed and sleep. Her mind was all over the place. She’d been texting with Remy several times since Saturday night, but she still had no idea what he planned to do to ‘uncomplicate’ things.
“I have to go to work.”
“Well, that would be a silly thing to do since I already called in sick for you.”