Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“I…no,” he said, cupping my neck and lifting my chin with his thumb, holding me still, staring into my eyes. “I would be very proud to have my friends meet a man who fixes the lives of people for a living.”
“Okay. Then I will tell my boss that I can’t go out of town on jobs anymore. I certainly can’t be anyone else’s fake boyfriend, since people will know I’m with you because they’ll see us together, so all I could be would be yours.”
His warm breath puffed across my face. “You would lose your value to him.”
“No,” I whispered. “When my buddy Shaw fell in love with the guy he’s gonna marry, he stopped going out on long jobs as well. There’s enough of us for him to stick around Chicago, fly out on two-to-four-day assignments, and be back home in time to pick his guy up from the airport when he flies in for the weekend.”
I watched his eyes darken, his pupils dilate. “How accommodating you are.”
I shrugged. “If it’s really worth it, that’s what you do. You bend.”
“I agree,” he said before he leaned in and kissed me again.
He still smelled and tasted and felt like the night before, and my body remembered and was more so reminded when his hand slipped inside the robe, to my bare skin, and then gently took hold of my cock. He stroked me languorously, and I caught my breath.
“I want you back inside me,” he whispered in my ear. “And this time I want to ride you and stare down into your beautiful eyes the whole time.”
“I made you look at me,” I rumbled, kissing along his jaw. “And I want to see you every time, Ash. Every. Time.”
He shivered hard before his mouth was back on mine. I wanted him, all of him, but even more, I wanted him to feel the closeness with my words. He had to know this was a promise I was making him, that I would try so hard, with everything I had, with all the right intentions, to be the best man I could be for him.
“Ash,” I managed to get out and manhandled him into a hug, pressing my face into his shoulder, clutching him so tight, I could feel his heart beating next to mine.
“You mean it,” he said shakily, his arms holding on. “You want this. You want me.”
“I do, so don’t—don’t disappear on me. If you get tired, or if at the end of this you don’t want to do what you said, tell me so I—”
“I want to meet your mother and your father and your sisters and everyone. They’re all going to know me, and I will kiss you so there will be no mistake who you are to me.”
Well, now.
“And no, sir, the way my heart felt when I woke up alone… I will not disappear. I’m a grown-up and everything.”
“Good to know,” I said, chuckling, squeezing him that much tighter.
The knock got harder then, not knuckles on the door, but a fist. “Did you hear the part where I said the FBI was gonna come calling?” Nash yelled.
Easing back, Ash looked at me. “I’m sorry, did he say the FBI?”
Nothing killed passion like being threatened by a three-letter agency.
I put on clothes, we returned to the living room to Owen and Nash, and this time, Ash was in full movie-star mode and met them both with a dazzling smile, a warm, firm handshake, and quick words about how much he appreciated them being there even though he had no idea why they were.
“I’m a big fan,” Owen told him. “I really loved Words in Water. The idea that you can love someone but neither of you understands why… That movie meant—means—a lot to me, and you were amazing in it.”
“Thank you,” Ash said, hand on his heart. “I appreciate that.”
Owen smiled sheepishly. “I don’t know why I felt the need to tell you.”
“When I read the script for that one,” Ash began—and it was kind of him to distract my friend, defusing his embarrassment—“I thought back to losing the person I thought was the one, and I carried that with me throughout the making of the film.”
“Yeah,” Owen agreed after a moment. “I felt everything with you in that film—everyone did. It’s why you got the Oscar and all the other awards.”
“That’s very kind of you to say.”
“It’s funny, but when you think you’ve lost your one chance at love—because you were cowardly, or just didn’t believe in it enough—all that worrying screwed me up for so long.”
“But you did it,” Ash said, smiling at him. “You stepped up and told the person you loved the truth, didn’t you?”
Owen was staring at him, bemused. “I did. How did you know?”
Ash shrugged. “You look settled, happy.” He glanced at Nash, and his brows furrowed. “Unlike your friend here.”