Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Emma collapsed on Dawg, her breathing as ragged as his. After they had dried off from their shower, they had moved to the bed for round two.
Dawg rubbed a strand of her long hair between his fingers, marveling on how it felt like silk draped over his chest.
Funny how the chaos in his head quieted during moments like these. He hoped it was the same for her.
“We need to talk about some of the things you said in Kiki’s office,” she murmured, her breath sweeping over his still heated skin.
“My dick’s still in you, wanna talk ‘bout that shit now?”
She rolled her head until her chin was planted on his chest and she locked her gaze with his. “Yes, before I need to go downstairs. I don’t want it distracting me when I work the floor.”
Right. Because soon he’d need to share her with the rest of the world again.
Reality was creeping in with each passing second.
But what she brought up first made it close in around him like a hand squeezing his throat.
“You’re not giving up your club or your place for me and Lily. First, I owe you, you don’t owe me. Second, I’ve disrupted your life enough as it is. There’s no reason for it. I’ll find a place, a teaching job. You have a good thing here, Dawson. You’re successful, the girls tell me how good you are to them and they rely on you. I’m not going to screw that up.”
His chest tightened. “Ain’t screwin’ up anything.” This kind of talk made his dick soften faster than normal and he slipped out of her with a disappointed sigh.
She traced her fingers over his collar bone and up his throat. “It doesn’t make sense to flip your life upside down for me. I don’t even know why you’d want to do it.”
“Not just doin’ it for you, Em.” Though, she was a major part of it. “This whole thing with you an’ Lily got me thinkin’.”
“About what? Reevaluating your life?” She combed her fingers through his beard and he lifted his chin to give her better access. He loved when she did that. It made him want to purr like a mountain lion. “There’s nothing wrong with the life you live. It may not be for everyone but it’s your life, Dawson.”
“Your daughter’s important to you...” he began.
“Of course she is.”
“Mine needs to be important to me, too,” he admitted. It hit him then that he’d opened up to this woman more than he’d ever opened up to anyone else in his life.
Her fingers stilled. “Your daughter spent the first fourteen years of her life not knowing you exist. Are you sure you want to get involved now? Flip her life upside down? She might not want anything to do with you. She might feel betrayed by her mother for lying to her all these years. She probably thinks her stepfather is her real father.”
“Don’t make it right,” he muttered.
“I agree. It doesn’t make it right. Not at all. What her mother did was wrong. For you. For Caitlin. But she may have done what she thought was best at the time. Just like me coming to you and begging for a job. Do you think I wanted to be a stripper? No. But I need to do what’s best for my daughter, which is bring her home. And to do that, I need money. So I was ready to do whatever I needed to do, even get naked on a stage in front of strangers.” Before Dawg could answer she lifted her hand to stop him. “Now, maybe Todd thinks he’s doing what’s best for Lily. I don’t know. I don’t know what he’s thinking, besides being a selfish prick. But he very well may have thought I was a horrible mother.”
There was no way Emma was a horrible mother, not even close. “Doubt it, baby girl. Look what you’re doin’ to get her back. A horrible mother wouldn’t go to all that trouble.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Her fingers continued on their journey brushing through his beard. “But to give up everything you’ve known for... how long?”
“Fifteen years.”
“Right. Think long and hard about giving up everything you’ve known, what you’ve built for the past fifteen years, Dawson. I’m not sure if you should give that all up for Caitlin. And especially not for me and Lily. You’ve only known me for a little over a week. This place has been a part of you longer than your daughter has been on this earth. Make sure whatever decision you make, you don’t regret later.”
Fuck, he told her the same thing about her decision to sleep with him. He’d needed her to be sure, so she wouldn’t regret it later. Now she was flipping that around on him.
“Regret being in my bed, baby girl?”