Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
This was different.
“You’re yelling at me,” she said in a sad-sounding voice.
His eyes widened as her lower lip started to tremble. She really didn’t mean to do that. It just happened.
Sometimes, a lip did what a lip had to do.
“I’m not yelling at you!”
“Yes, you are. You’re still doing it.”
“Shit. Am I?” He ran his hand over his face. “Fuck. I didn’t mean to yell at you, okay?”
“I don’t like it.”
Crap.
Had her voice just grown higher-pitched? Was she . . . was her Little close to the surface?
That was unacceptable.
She shut that down super-fast, pushing her Little back into that locked box where she kept her.
Even though she cried as she did it.
Sometimes, Bebe wondered if she had a split personality. If other people thought this way. If they had to keep their Little side on lockdown.
“I’m sorry, Bebe.” He reached out to take her hand and she flinched away.
Shoot.
She hated the look of surprised concern that filled his face. Followed by a hint of hurt.
The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Corbin.
“Is your hand all right?”
“What? Yes, why?” She was tempted to cradle her hand to her chest, to hide her hand from his gaze.
“You pulled it away from me. I thought it might be hurting you. I’ve noticed that sometimes you favor it. And that you wince if someone grabs it too hard.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
How was he so observant?
“It’s fine,” she said, standing abruptly. “I’m fine. I need to go.”
“Where are you going?”
“To look up how to tell whether a wall is load-bearing. And to find my darn sledgehammer!”
And to get far away from him. Before she was tempted to throw herself into his arms.
And beg him to never let her go.
17
“Who wants to go to a pub with me?” she asked as she walked downstairs four nights later.
She had to get out of here.
There was this strange tension between her and Corbin that only seemed to grow with every day.
Ahh, by tension, do you mean sexual tension?
She didn’t want to think about it.
About how she’d told him he could do forearm porn. Or his reaction to her saying that Hayes had a good butt. It was just an observation; anyone could see that the man had buns of steel. Didn’t mean she was attracted to him.
He was more like a big brother.
A grumbly, scowly one.
But Corbin’s reaction meant he cared what she thought.
The two men were sitting in the living room. She’d finally managed to clear out enough junk that there was room to move around.
Of course, the only furniture in the room had come with the house. It was very old and kind of dainty.
So, seeing two big men sitting on the faded floral sofa was amusing.
What wasn’t funny was the way Corbin’s gaze caught on her as he took in what she was wearing.
She’d put on a skin-tight pair of fake leather pants. Bebe liked the way they gave her more of an ass. She was wearing black boots with a heel. And then she’d paired the pants with a low-cut, emerald blouse. She’d tied the ends at her waist so when she moved, you got a hint of her stomach.
He was staring at her so intently that she grew concerned that Hayes might notice. But as she forced herself to turn and look at the other man, she found him frowning too deeply at her to pay much attention to how Corbin was looking at her.
Like he wanted to grab her . . . eat her . . .
A shiver ran through her and her body heated. Yeah, she wouldn’t exactly say no to that.
“A pub?” Hayes asked. “You mean a bar?”
“Well, yeah, but it’s Irish, so it’s a pub. Callahan’s Pub.”
Corbin and Hayes shared a look.
“A bar isn’t the easiest place to keep you safe,” Hayes said with a frown.
She sighed. “Hayes, you don’t like me going anywhere. I swear you want me to stay home under lock and key.”
His frown deepened. “What’s wrong with that? Safest place for you. I’m against this outing.”
“I need to get out of here. I’m getting cabin fever. I now can’t go to the skate park thanks to Corbin scaring Frosty. And when I tried to go to salsa dancing lessons two nights ago, the instructor was more interested in what Hayes was doing than teaching me.”
“What kind of name is Frosty?” Corbin muttered.
“And I can’t help what the salsa instructor looks at,” Hayes replied. “The guy offered me a lifetime supply of free lessons. Not happening.”
“Salsa dancing is really sexy, though.”
Both of them just stared at her.
Bebe sighed. “I want to go to Callahan’s Pub; can we get out of here?”
They shared a look. What the heck? Why couldn’t they just talk out loud like normal people?
“We’ll both have to go with you,” Corbin told her. “And there will be new rules.”