Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 95606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
“And in the meantime?” Grace sputtered.
“He’s my best friend. He’s . . .” Chloe dragged her knees up toward her chest. “I don’t have a word to describe him.”
“How about ‘The most perfect human on earth.’ That’s how you described him to me the day we met.” Grace let out a long exhale. “You’re in love with him?”
A call came in on the other line.
Sig.
Oh God, he must have seen the article.
What was he thinking? Had she been quoted? What pictures had been included?
Did she end the call with Grace and answer? So she and Sig could get their story straight? Did they need a story when they hadn’t technically done anything wrong?
“That about answers my question,” Grace said dryly.
Hot pinpricks speared the backs of Chloe’s eyelids. “I haven’t seen the article yet. I just need some time to figure out what’s being said—”
“So you can figure out how to lie to me? Chloe, I’m sorry. You’re megatalented and I like you, despite your manic pixie dream girl energy. But this is my career on the line, too. I have to dip before this gets worse.”
“You’re dropping me,” Chloe breathed.
The line going dead was her answer.
Chloe covered her mouth with her hand, the silence in the apartment somehow ear-piercingly loud. She was still staring at the door, waiting for Sig, but the frame blurred now, her heart hammering in her chest.
The phone rang again in her hand.
She answered. “Sig.”
“Chloe,” he said thickly.
That was it. Enough to know they’d both been made aware of the article.
Made aware they’d been caught being in love.
“Are you coming over?”
“I don’t think that would be wise.” Her whole body sort of heaved forward at the news she wouldn’t see him imminently. She’d been dropped by Grace. Now Sig was going to abandon her too. “I think we should meet somewhere else,” he finished, his truck door slamming in the background.
Relief bloomed in her chest like a wildflower and she cradled the phone more securely to her face, as if it was Sig’s hand. How could she have doubted him for a second? “Oh. I thought you were going to say you couldn’t see me anymore.”
“That’s not funny, Chloe.”
“I wasn’t making a joke.”
“I’ll be dead and buried before I stay away from you.”
“Likewise,” she whispered. “That’s why we’re in this mess.”
A blown-out breath. “Yeah.”
The fact that Sig didn’t immediately reassure her that said mess could be fixed caused Chloe’s stomach to turn inside out. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
“I’m going to send you an address. Have an Uber bring you there. It’s a twenty-minute ride. I just think . . . I don’t know. Let’s get some distance from your place. If you think someone is following you, turn around and go back.”
“Okay.” She climbed to her feet and started toward her bedroom, alarmed by the lack of sensation in her legs. The way her apartment suddenly looked like a foreign land. “What is the address for?”
“A hotel.” Those two gruff words caressed her ear. “There’s a guaranteed chance I’m about to make this situation worse, but I decided this morning that I was going to fuck you tonight, Chloe. There’s no going back. I need you underneath me so bad, my stomach is in knots right now. I need you more now that what we have is being threatened, okay? You walk into that hotel room, do it knowing you’re going to end the night moaning my fucking name.”
She paused out of necessity on the threshold of her bedroom, her whole body racked with a hot shiver. “I want that. I’ve wanted that for six months.”
“Get here, then. Get to me.” Traffic whirred on his end of the line, the revving engine of his truck. “I’m going to make sure you’re okay first, baby. But I can’t keep going like this. No more. Everything aches for you.”
Had she ever heard him this raw and honest before?
Is this what he’d been holding back?
Sig had always been wildly potent, but this side of him?
Her Uber driver was going to wonder why she was sweating.
“I’ll be out the door in five minutes.” A snarfing noise almost caused Chloe to jump out of her skin. Pierre waded into her bedroom with a bored expression and plopped onto his hiney. “Oh! I’ll have to bring Pierre.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Sig, you’re going to make him feel unwanted. Does the hotel allow dogs?”
“They’re going to tonight, whether they like it or not. I’m not accepting any delays.”
“See? Listen to you. You’re going to be a great Bearcats captain.”
He didn’t speak for so long, she started to worry, but before she could ask why he’d gone quiet, he spoke. “I’ll text you the room number.”
“Okay.” She rolled out a carry-on suitcase from her closet and heaved it one-handed onto the bed. “See you soon.”