Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
“And the place you used to work? Yours too, if you want it. You can keep your old landlord and bosses or toss them out on their asses. It’s your call,” he says, shrugging.
“We could also file a civil case against both of them by Monday if you want to, but I don’t think you’re that kinda girl,” he remarks, stroking the hair back from my face.
“B-But?” I stammer, still unsure whether what I’m hearing is even real.
“I know, I know. I should’ve forewarned you or even saved it for Christmas… But…?” he says, shrugging again. “What can I do?”
I sit stunned for a while, unsure what to say or even think, when Steve puts it another way.
“I know you’ve still got doubts, Holly. Or rather, all this is so new you might think it’s phony or somehow will get ripped away from you. Like your job and that apartment,” he explains. “But this, this is to show you. To prove to you that no matter what happens, you’ve got something for a change. And nobody can ever take it away from you.”
“But I… I don’t even…,” I hear myself stammering again, sounding like an idiot.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Steve whispers in my ear, kissing it gently before moving down to my neck.
“Now. Do you want me to show you around, or we can go home if you want,” he says, leaving it up to me.
Decisions.
My own plans.
Things I prided myself on until just now.
Feeling like the wind’s been knocked out of me because of all of this.
Steve, what he does, and everything he’s offering me as his teammate, has opened my eyes to it.
“Uh… We could stay here for a bit,” I tell him hurriedly, shivering a little with nerves now, not even minding when he chuckles quietly and kisses the top of my head again.
I want to tell him the only thing I want is him. Him and the baby, I hope I’m already carrying. But I feel my mouth opening and closing instead.
The right words were just not coming out.
“Alright. We can hang out here, but I think dinner out someplace nice would make a change. If you’re up to it a little later?” he asks.
“Business always makes me hungry,” he murmurs.
I feel my head stabbing a nod, but my mind still feels frozen and also spinning at a million miles an hour.
“I’ll have your things sent up. We can get ready here,” Steve says.
After giving me some time to calm down, Steve shows me his office and around the top floor, which makes his apartment look small by comparison.
Pointing it out as the light fades from day to night, I can see the top of his apartment building from up this high.
His huge body close behind mine, his hand on my shoulder while the other points it out, really makes it feel like Steve is a man who knows what he wants.
And he knows how to get it.
After just a little while alone again, talking about the view and a dozen other things that don’t really matter, I realize it doesn’t matter either way to me.
If I own a building or a business, or if I have nothing.
As long as I’m with Steve, that’s all that matters.
And I think that’s what he’s been trying to tell me in his own way since we met. Not because I just signed some papers.
He’s showing me everything between us and the view of his apartment, the car, and bags of things inside it.
They’re just things.
What counts is the connection we’ve made.
The bond between us, as friends as well as lovers.
Teammates, as he likes to put it. But I know now it goes a helluva lot deeper than that.
Soul mates are more like it.
Like so many things to do with Steve, my new wardrobe appears as if by magic, but only because he’s already instructed it all to be brought up.
His dinner recommendation makes me more than a little nervous, but it’s clear that Steve Carter is easing me into the deep end of his lifestyle. His world.
Not to show off or boast about himself, but because he’s decided I’m a part of it all now.
The main focus of it, if I’m honest with myself.
And he’s become the center of my world so quickly too. I only wish I could figure out what he sees in me or what I have to bring to the table for the man who has everything.
But I think the answer to that may already be growing inside me.
A lot like his penthouse apartment, Steve’s office is huge but functional.
A home away from home, with two bathrooms, walk-in changing room, and a bedroom that almost mirrors the one across town.
“For every time I need to pull an all-nighter or just can’t be bothered to get myself home,” he remarks casually.