Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
I spent a lot of time last night staring at them, obsessing about her, trying – and failing – to convince myself to delete them.
She runs a hand through her hair, pausing as she looks up at me.
I raise my coffee mug as a hello, but I mess up. My hand is shaking too much as I try to swallow this volcanic feeling.
Coffee swills over the edge of the mug and onto my hand, burning me.
Cursing, I place it down, grabbing some paper towels from next to the coffee machine.
Faye’s at her desk when I return to the window, her back is to me now.
I go downstairs, and walk onto the warehouse floor.
“Good morning,” I say.
She turns and stares up at me. That blush is on her cheeks. My hands twitch, telling me to grab her ass. My lips tingle, compelling me to kiss her, maybe gentler this time, ease her into it…
“Morning,” she says. “I thought you were going to stay in your office all day.”
“Why?”
“The way you turned away from the window, I guess.”
“I spilled my coffee. Burnt myself. It had nothing to do with you.”
“Oh,” she pauses as if looking for something to say. “Lola had fun on her impromptu shopping trip.”
I clench my teeth. “Are you judging me for taking my daughter shopping?”
She sighs. “No. I guess the timing seems sort of funky to me.”
“All right, you want me to say it? I felt guilty as hell, and so, after lunch, I took her shopping.”
“I felt guilty too,” she says softly. “All night. I wasn’t sure if I should come in today.”
I pull up a chair and sit, our legs almost touching.
She looks up from the folder of photographs.
“I didn’t mean to get so carried away yesterday,” I tell her. “I didn’t plan it. It just kind of…happened.”
“I know,” she says softly. “It was the same for me.”
“You didn’t feel like you could stop?” I say, voice gruff. “Because that’s how I felt. Goddamn powerless. You’re so beautiful, Faye….”
She leans away slightly, but I can tell it’s not in disgust.
It’s not like she wants me to stop, but more like she knows we should.
“It was so humiliating yesterday,” she says after a pause. “Sneaking around after you and Lola left. But I knew it was for the best. I knew there was no freaking way I was going to walk out of that office…except, wouldn’t it be better if she knew?”
My chest chooses this moment to become a vice, to squeeze until my heart feels like it’s beating hard against merciless metal.
I’m trying to imagine a world where I tell Lola, and she doesn’t hate me, hate us.
“But then…,” she goes on, and I’m happy, pathetically so.
It means I don’t have to think of an answer, not right now. It makes me so damn ashamed, the gratitude sweeping through me, just for a few more seconds of not having to decide one way or the other.
“What would we even say? I was thinking about this. It’s not like I can be like, Hey, Lola, I’ve got the hots for your dad. I’ve had a crush on him for….”
She trails off, her eyes going wide in that cute innocent way.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” she mutters.
I almost reach across the table, touching her, but I know where that leads.
I can remember so well – my whole body can remember so well – what she felt like in the studio, with her curvy body shifting against me, her ass screaming to be touched and massaged and pleased.
“It doesn’t matter.”
She huffs. “How can you say that? Screw it.”
“Screw it?”
She folds her arms, staring at me sassily. It causes her breasts to shift in that tempting way, making my balls ache, and my shaft twitch even as I fight the urge to grow hard.
I’m damn near salivating just thinking about touching her again.
“I’ve had a crush on you for years,” she says, the words rushing out. “Ever since I was a….”
I lean across the desk, grabbing her leg and kissing her hard. She whimpers and then returns the kiss. I can feel the sun on my face as we open our mouths, our tongues clashing, and I know we should stop.
Any second, somebody could walk in here.
But she tastes too perfect, too mine.
“Felix,” she murmurs, breaking the kiss.
I keep my lips against hers, smirking. “What happened to Mr. Fallon?”
She laughs lightly. “Don’t you have any…I don’t know, response?”
“So you had a crush on me,” I say gruffly. “I never knew. I never cared. I don’t care about what fantasies you had before you became the woman you are today. You, right now, that’s all I care about. You.”
I force myself to lean back, to let out a breath.
I’m too close to letting it all tear out of me.
“Does Lola know?” I ask after a pause, trying to change the subject.