Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90475 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Too bad. I’d like the strings. I’d maybe like ties too. Like being tied to his giant bed. But I also am not in the right headspace to get involved, so it’s for the best that we have zero commitments.
“Of course.”
“But I do have one expectation,” Ryker calls out from the kitchen.
“What’s that?” I ask, intrigued.
He doesn’t tell me. He shows me when he strides across the floor, hauls me into his big embrace, and kisses me deeply, thoroughly, tasting of coffee and pancakes and him.
It’s a dizzying kiss, and my stomach is flipping, and my skin is tingling, and I feel knocked off-kilter in the best of ways.
When he lets go, there’s no time to catch my breath since he nips on my earlobe. “Mmm. Last night, you smelled like strawberries. Now, you smell like us,” he rumbles, and my knees weaken, then I ache when he rasps out, “Smell her, Weston.”
Chase swoops in and drags his nose along my neck, and it’s too early for me to be this turned on again, and yet I am. “Yessss,” Chase murmurs, then brushes tender lips to mine.
It’s a dust of a kiss that sends a ribbon of pleasure unfurling inside me.
I’m overwhelmed with their kisses and their words once again.
I leave, with two new roomies for the next week, and no idea what will happen when I return tonight.
12
A HOUSEWARMING PRESENT
Trina
Jaw agape, my sister clutches her pregnant belly, like her basketball baby is going to fall out from the shock of my choices. “You can’t be serious?”
We’re standing outside Aubrey’s apartment building in the Outer Sunset, a chill whipping past us that evening. Nacho lifts his snout in the direction of the breeze, sniffing the air, his little tan nose working overtime.
“Yes, I’m serious, but it’s only a week,” I say. Okay, it’s nine days, but who’s counting? I sling my backpack up on my shoulder as I curse this timing.
I almost avoided my sister. I was out the door when Cassie ambushed me with a succulent ten minutes ago, arriving at the building unannounced while Aubrey was taking a call from a client begging for a balayage appointment. “Surprise! Just a little housewarming present for you and Aubs,” Cassie said when she showed up.
Code for I’m spying on you to see if you’ve shacked up with a drug lord at your bestie’s place.
That’s Cassie—she thinks she’s the helper but she’s actually the challenger. She’s willful and controlling, and I’m sure it’s because deep down, she doesn’t ever want anyone to overpower her, so she overpowers everybody.
Or maybe she just really thinks I’m a loser.
Cassie points to my pooch to make her argument. “You’re going to take your darling dog,” she says, and wow, she’s trying hard if she’s calling my pup a darling. “And let him live with someone you don’t even know?”
Well, I know Chase biblically. Oops. I meant…them.
“I know him,” I say, deliberately choosing to focus on one man only. Cassie doesn’t need to know there’s another super-hot hockey star bed surfing there too.
If my sister thinks I’m a hot mess for rooming with a new guy for a week, imagine what she’d think if she knew I hooked up with not one, but two guys.
I file that under things she will never know.
“How do you know him?” she asks, continuing her rant. “You hate hockey.”
“No, I don’t,” I insist.
She gives me the look. The I’m your older sister and I know better look. “Trina, you despise sports. You actually wrote down a life goal to never go to a sporting event,” she points out.
“Because you asked me for my life plan when you took me out for ice cream a few months ago!” I point out. “I put it on there as a joke.”
“And you never wanted to go when Matthew and I invited you to see the Renegades. He has season tickets, you know.”
I know, I know. I hear about them every time I see her. Her husband is the team dentist for the Renegades football team, and I’ve had the audacity—her word—to turn down their offer of tickets. Gee, I wonder if it’s the football I don’t like or the judgment.
“Well, I like hockey now,” I say defensively, and that’s sort of true. I like some aspects of it. Like the fancy food and the suits.
“But…” she says, flapping her hands, building up a head of steam and sputtering so much that Nacho cocks his head, staring at her with concern, then whimpering.
I bend down to stroke him reassuringly. “She’s fine, honey.”
Then Cassie blurts out, “But he could be a serial killer.”
I laugh, scooping up my dog in my arms. Nacho rewards my love with a face lick. “He plays professional hockey. They probably vet for that.”
“You don’t know for sure. Just stay with me,” she says, gentling her tone. “We can have sister time before the baby comes.” She holds her belly again, like she’s using it as a lure for me. Come to baby land. We can discuss whether I’m the size of a pumpkin or a honeydew. “I want to bond with you. Help you be the best aunt you can be.”