Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 135442 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135442 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
As ever, I managed to control this reaction, shifted my gaze from the smorgasbord of goodness he was spreading out on my counter and looked to him.
“Boone, I—” I began quietly.
His head came up and being confronted with all that green when his eyes captured mine shut my mouth, but his opened to speak.
“I ended it with her yesterday.”
I put both hands to the counter.
“It’s all you,” he finished.
It was all me.
Ohmigod.
Ohmigod!
“Boone,” I whispered.
“Baby, I want you,” he whispered back. “And if the happy birthday cookie doesn’t win you, I’ll find something that does. So tear down the walls, Ryn, I want in, I’m getting in and we’re gonna see where this goes.”
“Were you into her?” I asked.
His face got kind of hard. “She doesn’t factor.”
“She does if you eventually feel you gave up something you wished you hadn’t.”
“Babe, if she was something to me, we would have been exclusive. And that might sound harsh to you, but it isn’t. You don’t know me, so I’ll share I’m not some guy who’s gonna blow off a woman’s feelings with shit like ‘she knew the score.’ We both did. She said on our second date she wasn’t looking for anything serious. She’d just had a bad break. She was easing herself back in. And she gave no indication it was going anywhere for her with me, including when I ended it with her. She just kissed my cheek and told me if I ever wanted a booty call, I had her number.”
I suspected my face got hard at that, or something, because he went on.
“That’s not gonna happen, Ryn. It was her way of saying she dug me enough to have me again, but now that she didn’t, no hard feelings.”
“Boone, I hesitate to share this with you, but I assume you own a mirror, or if not, in your lifetime walked by one, so you gotta know you’re not hard on the eyes.”
This comment made his eyes twinkle.
This guy.
Everything about him was shit hot.
Even his eyes twinkling.
I ignored that (or attempted to, we’ll just say I powered through), and carried on.
“Though, you’re not a woman, so let me share with you how a woman feels about a breakup with a guy like you. She is either A,” I lifted my hand and grabbed my pinkie, “currently outside this house because she’s stalking you, and after you leave, she’s going to break in and attempt to murder me, or B,” I grabbed my ring finger, “working her way through her fourth huge-ass birthday cookie with each bite soaked in her tears.”
Boone started chuckling.
I just gazed steadily at him and lifted my brows.
He stopped chuckling but he still was grinning when he shared, “Ryn, honest to God, she’s good. And again, not to be harsh, but if she’s not, and she lied about not wanting anything serious or kept from me growing feelings, then I’m not sure that’s my issue. But even so, I like to think I can get a bead on people and she just wasn’t that into me, which, seeing as I’m into you, worked for me.”
“She seems quite an unusual woman.”
“It isn’t just men who can disconnect from emotion to find someone to spend time with and give them an orgasm.”
Well, that was true.
“Were you her Dom?”
His expression softened, his eyes grew a fascinating mixture of tender and reproving, and he said gently, “Don’t ask shit like that.”
Which meant he was.
I looked down at my hands.
“You’re not a virgin, I’m not a virgin,” he said, and my head came back up. “You’ve played, I’ve played. I can guarantee you haven’t played like I play, but I am not gonna ask about anyone who had you, unless there’s something they did that you didn’t like that I’ll need to avoid.”
Curiosity, as it was wont to do, got the better of me.
“I haven’t played like you play?” I asked.
He shook his head. “First, when we get there, and I’m takin’ us there after we get to know each other better, sweetheart, no sooner, but in the beginning, we’re vanilla. I want us to have that to build what we got, as well as get familiar with each other’s bodies before we go there. And just to say, I dig vanilla, as long as it’s creative, so that’s always on the table. But we’ll have that in the beginning ’cause I’ll also need to discover your hotspots so I can take advantage of them when the time comes.”
A certain spot was hot with the way he was talking.
“Other than that,” he shifted to start opening and closing cupboards, “I might collar you when I’m feelin’ like seein’ you wear my ownership, but I don’t dig the deep end of the scene.”
One might think this was odd, this depth of sexual sharing at this juncture.