Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Nora made a feminine growly noise he’d never heard her make before (also cute, but all he could do was to wonder if she sounded something like that when she was naked, on her back and he did something to turn her on) as she located a muddler and started tossing mint and lime wedges from the bar caddy into two highball glasses.
Apparently, he was drinking a mojito before dinner.
“How are we going to make it to the Caribbean and back in a week going seven miles an hour?” she asked.
“It’s doubtful that’s our goal,” he answered.
She stopped smashing mint, lime and sugar and stared up at him again.
“Be prepared not to leave this boat, sweetheart,” he warned.
She turned back to the glasses and went to town with the muddler, saying between her teeth, “I…am going…to kill many people.”
“Nora,” he called.
“What?” she snapped at her muddling.
He wrapped his fingers around her wrist.
She stilled but didn’t look up at him.
So he called again, “Nora.”
She gave him her eyes.
“Like I said, we’re going to have to make the most of this.”
“I don’t feel like getting along with anybody right now.”
“I understand.”
She sighed dramatically, and got over it, he knew, when she inquired, “I should have asked, do you want a mojito?”
“Since you’ve started, sure.”
“Oh, don’t mistake me, Mr. Oakley. I’m perfectly fine to drink two.”
He smiled at her.
Her eyes dropped to his mouth.
When he felt that in his cock, he let her wrist go.
That look she had on her face after he told her their kiss was a mistake came back, it wasn’t as strong, but it still gutted him.
She wanted him.
And she was in love with him.
Yes, it gutted him.
Because he couldn’t give that back.
That wasn’t true, he was in love with her too.
Hopelessly.
He just couldn’t follow through with it.
Because…not again.
Never again.
“After I finish these, I’ll make your bourbon,” she said while reaching for the rum.
And thank Christ she was strong, and kind, and smart, and could look out for herself, or what they had could be ruined.
They’d find their way back to it.
She just needed to save face.
And he needed to give her space.
It would be painful for them both, and that killed him.
But they were family now, thus it was unavoidable, and they were both the kind of people who, for the ones they loved, would suck it up.
“I’ll have a mojito,” he replied.
She nodded her head and didn’t reply.
Her phone lit up, and the screen said Ex Calling.
His neck got taut.
“Who’s that?” he asked, even if he knew exactly who it was.
She glanced at her phone, then said, “Ignore it.”
“Who’s that, Nora?”
She looked at him again. “Ignore it, Jamie.”
“Is it Roland?” he asked, and again he knew it was, because he knew the man had been sniffing around her all too frequently of late.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does.”
“It doesn’t.”
“It does,” he asserted. Then he stated, “Fuck it, I’ll find out myself.”
He grabbed her phone, took the call and put it to his ear as she cried, “Jamie! What are you—?”
“Castellini?” he demanded.
“Oakley?” Castellini queried.
Nora had gotten close and was pressing into his side, now with her fingers wrapped around his wrist, trying to pull the phone away.
Not gonna happen.
“What the fuck?” he clipped into the phone.
“Where’s my wife? Why are you answering her phone?”
“First, she’s not your fucking wife. Second, I’m answering her phone because she’s busy making me a drink. Why are you calling?”
“Jamie, just—” Nora tried.
“That’s none of your damned business,” Castellini said in his ear.
“Seeing as I’m here, about to share a cocktail and then dinner with her while she’s wearing a phenomenal fucking dress, and you’re not, I beg to differ.”
“Fuck you and put Nora on the phone.”
“Don’t call her again, Castellini,” he ordered.
“Put Nora on the phone!” the man thundered.
“Don’t call again,” he said and then disconnected.
Nora was no longer pressed close, nor did she have her fingers wrapped around his wrist.
She was standing two feet away with her arms crossed on her chest and banked fury in her eyes.
He ignored the fury, even if he couldn’t ignore what her pose did to her breasts and how that made his trousers fit too snugly in the crotch.
“I’ll keep this for tonight, if you don’t mind,” he stated and slid her phone into his inside jacket pocket.
Her brows went up before she asked, “What if I do mind?”
“I’m still keeping it.”
“Be my guest. Now, just to say, there are a few more corners around here you forgot to piss in,” she informed him.
He disregarded that and asked, “Why is he calling you?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Nora, he cheated on you with every skirt he could con into bed.”
“You don’t have to remind me.”
“So why is he calling. Are the kids okay?”
“They’re fine.”
He tipped his head sharply to the side in a Talk gesture.
She tipped her head to the side too, and queried, “Did you visit him at his office after I filed for divorce?”