Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
He grinned. “You mean tomorrow morning when you’ll allow me to break in and join you in bed again before you leave and then let me crash there all day?”
He’d done that twice now. Yesterday and this morning.
It had been magnificent.
Right up to the point when I had to leave my warm, cozy bed and his hard body to go to work.
That part had sucked big donkey balls.
Though, thankfully, tomorrow I didn’t have to go to work.
“Come on.” He placed his hand on my hip and guided me to the counter to pay.
When he reached for his wallet, I rolled my eyes.
He’d yet to let me pay for a meal, even though I had tried to multiple times.
While he was signing the receipt, I let my eyes roam around the room, and they stopped on my mother.
I just barely kept the sneer off my face.
She was staring at me with unconcealed hostility, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wasn’t going to get out of here without her saying something.
Shit.
I stiffened at Johnny’s side, and he felt it because his hand hadn’t left its place on my hip since we got up from the table.
He looked down at my face and then over to where I was looking, and he growled low in his throat.
Then he turned to the young girl working the counter. “You got a different exit we could use?”
Relief poured through me at his quick thinking.
He knew just as well as I did that this wasn’t going to be pretty. In an attempt to head it off, he was trying to get us out of here before she realized that we’d left.
“The only other door we have is to the back porch,” she gestured to the side exit. “But it has a fence.”
Johnny nodded, then took my hand and led me to the back porch.
Once we were out there, I shivered due to the rapidly cooling air that came with the cold front that had blown in earlier.
“Come on,” he gestured to the part of the fence that was about five feet high. “I’ll help you over.”
I grinned and walked with him to the wooden fence. “If the pretty part of the fence was facing the other way, I could probably do it myself.”
Then I was up and off my feet as Johnny damn near lifted me over his freakin’ head.
I squeaked as I clamored up to the top, gripping the fence with my hands as I tried to catch myself so I didn’t just fall over to the other side.
Once I steadied myself—and he hadn’t let go despite my jerky movements—I jumped.
My boots landed in the grass on the other side, and moments afterward, Johnny followed me over with much more grace and ease.
“Showoff,” I muttered.
Johnny grinned and then winked, crowding me so that my back was resting against the wooden fence we’d just scrambled over.
His mouth came down on mine, and I found myself clutching his bare biceps.
“You need a coat,” I whispered.
“I’ll be fine,” he disagreed. “And it’s only fifty-five.”
“It’s supposed to get down to twenty-five,” I argued, my breath mingling with his as we spoke.
“This is beginning to become a habit of y’all’s.” Rosie’s acidic voice filled the night air.
I jumped, but Johnny didn’t seem the least bit surprised. He must have seen her when I didn’t.
“Go away, Rosie,” Johnny said to the annoying woman. “I’m trying to say goodnight to my girl.”
I felt my insides warm.
“Go. I have to go try to catch some sleep before you get there in the morning, and I have about eight piles of laundry that I need to try to get through,” I teased, curling my hand around his neck and pulling him down to me for one more kiss.
“Bitch.”
Both of us ignored Rosie as we broke apart, and he walked me to my truck and waited for me to get inside and start it before closing the door.
Once I put it in reverse, he offered me a wink and then watched me back out.
I didn’t miss my mother coming out of the building, but I knew that she wouldn’t approach Johnny. Not with him in his uniform, anyway.
Smiling, I drove home and tackled the laundry.
Then I went to bed, tossed and turned a bit until I finally found sleep.
Chapter 21
No, it’s not okay to call the cops because you hear cats fighting outside your window. Common sense, people! Get it.
-Hostel PD FB page
June
I woke up when cold feet—and an even colder body—curled up against me under the covers.
I gasped in surprise as my warm body was surrounded by Johnny’s cold one.
“Holy shit!” I squeaked, trying to get away from the cold.
Johnny wrapped his arms and his legs around me, and then shivered, refusing to let me go.
“You were right, I was wrong,” he admitted. “I needed a coat. It’s fucking cold.”