Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 506(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
She rearranged her face into a glare and his lips quirked at the corners while his eyes took on a challenging glint. He refused to look away, forcing her to break eye contact first.
She grabbed up a plate, aware that her body language was a little aggressive. She could feel him still staring at her, his eyes boring into her back, and it put her on the defensive. Gritting her teeth, she piled her plate high with food that she had no appetite for. She was gratified to note that Cat hadn’t included her potato salad in the buffet. Thankfully there was more than enough food to make up for the lack.
Everybody eventually filtered to the patio dining space and sat around the huge, long hand-crafted solid oak table. It was large enough to seat twelve people comfortably, and because there were only nine of them tonight, they could spread out a bit. Cat and Cam at the head, with Zane, Cynthia, and Lucy on one side. Kylie and her boyfriend, Kyle—it had taken every ounce of willpower Beth possessed not to chuckle when she’d overheard someone mention his name in the kitchen—sat on the other side with Beth. That left Gideon with four empty seats on either of the long benches to choose from.
Beth eyed him askance as he paused, weighed up his options, and—sigh—slid into the spot right next to her, forcing her to shift up from her position at the end of the bench and move into the empty space beside Kylie.
Why?
She glared at him mutely and he met that gaze with an infuriatingly raised eyebrow. She bit her tongue and shifted her focus to the affectionate couple on her left.
“So how did you two meet?” she asked, lifting her fork and spearing a cherry tomato.
“Kyle works at my favorite bar,” Kylie said. “And after I broke up with Robbie…remember him?”
Beth nodded, having a vague recollection of a skinny, pimply blond guy in his early twenties. Then again, that may have been the guy before Robbie—it was hard to keep up.
“Anyway,” Kylie continued. “Kyle heard me talking about the break-up and he gave me a free drink to make me feel better. He’s so sweet. We started talking and I mean…he was always right there, in front of me. Only I never saw him. But it was meant to be, you know what I mean? Kizmed.”—what?—“Even our names match.”
“That’s so—” Beth floundered. Was romantic the right word? “That’s great, Kylie.”
“I’m just so happy, y’know?” Kylie said, teary-eyed. And Beth nodded.
“Great,” Beth repeated. “That’s really great.”
She was hyperaware of the man on her right eavesdropping on the conversation and because of that, she heard the quiet, scornful sound he made in the back of his throat. Kylie was now snuggling and whispering in Kyle’s ear. Directly across the table from Beth, Lucy was trying to convince Cynthia and Cam to attend a music festival at the botanical garden with her next month. At the other end of the table, Cat and Zane were still talking about work.
Which left Gideon and Beth sitting in awkward silence. Well, awkward on her part. He looked perfectly relaxed. He was focused on his plate, and tore through his meal with every semblance of complete enjoyment. Beth, once again feeling like the odd woman out, stared at her own plate. She wasn’t always great in social settings. She got nervous in crowds. But she was usually better with people she knew. And she knew everyone here very well. She got along with them and happily held her own in conversation without clamming up after just a few seconds. Tonight though, she felt the way she usually did in a crowd of strangers. At a loss, lonely, and desperate to escape to the familiarity of her own home.
Perhaps this weekend, with all its stressors, had finally taken a toll. Beth just needed to—
She stifled a shocked gasp when she felt a large, warm palm on her bare thigh. She sneaked an outraged peek at the man on her right. He was lifting his beer with his right hand and laughing at something Cam had said in response to Lucy’s cajoling. Acting for all the world like his fingers weren’t stealthily sneaking up between her legs.
She clamped her thighs tightly over that large paw, preventing him from reaching his goal. Her right hand moved under the table to smack his away. To his credit, once she opened her legs, he immediately retreated and brought his hand back to the tabletop where he fiddled with a napkin. She watched, riveted, as his long middle finger stroked a raised fold in center of the napkin. First a mesmerizing circular motion, followed by rapid side to side flicks and then long, lazy up and down movements.
She swallowed and her thighs clenched as her body responded in an infuriatingly predictable way to that deliberate provocation. He was speaking with Cam and Cynthia. But Beth couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t quite follow anybody’s conversation right now. Her nipples were painfully hard, and she was grateful for the low light on the patio, or they would have been pretty damned visible to everyone around the table.