Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
“Let’s go,” he urged.
I walked back inside the auditorium just in time to hear the person before me get their name called.
I rushed away with a curse, feeling the coolness from the large room immediately.
When had I gotten so warm?
Though that was kind of a stupid question.
Bain was like a big ol’ warm bear of a man.
When he was around, I didn’t have to worry about being cold.
“Diana Grassi,” the dean called out.
I cursed, passed by others waiting to get called and pushed my way up the stairs past the others behind me, and stopped in a flourish next to the dean.
He winked at me, handed me my diploma, then gestured toward the crowd.
I turned just in time to see my mom, Dad, Bain and his parents all standing up and taking photos of me.
I smiled big, the happiness a foreign thing in my blood and waved.
Bain winked and I felt a little more happiness bloom.
Yeah… I could totally do this.
CHAPTER 13
Sometimes what didn’t work out for you, really worked out for you.
-Life lessons
BAIN
She had an ass made for coming on, but a face made for missionary.
Crude, but seriously, swear to God, she was the most built girl I’d ever had the pleasure of meeting in my life.
I watched her walk toward us, her hips swinging provocatively.
Well, she likely didn’t know that she was putting on a show. But my dick sure did.
Luce’s hair wasn’t a ‘red’ in the red sense of the word. It was more a deep, dark mahogany. She had long, luscious locks that touched the tips of her breasts when she walked. And God, her body.
Even in a long, unshapely royal-blue gown, she had the body of all bodies.
At seventeen, when I’d seen her in her prom dress, my heart had died a little inside knowing that she wasn’t mine. The sparkly, tight number had been ingrained in my memory ever since. The way her breasts were pushed up and exposed… the way her hips fit into the tight number. The way her body had been shaped like an hourglass.
Just made for having babies…
“You did it!” Desiree, Luce’s mom, cried, jolting me from my thoughts. “Congrats, baby!”
The taste of her cherry lip gloss was still embedded on my taste buds.
God, I would take her away right now and kiss the holy hell out of her if she didn’t need this time with her family.
“Thanks, Mom.” Luce smiled, looking awkward as hell and uncomfortable.
I caught her around the shoulder when she got close enough and pulled her in for a hug that lasted a little too long, according to all the parents that were all now looking at me oddly.
“Good job,” I shared. “It’s impressive, you fulfilling this dream.”
She pulled away from me with a smile, her eyes soft as she said, “Thanks. I wish I’d never come.”
I burst out laughing.
Then, for good measure, pulled her into my arms again because I felt like it.
Yeah, my little Luce had never done well in public.
Years ago, when I’d taken her to prom, she’d told me that the only reason she’d come was because she wanted to experience that ‘core memory’ that every graduating youth did. The last of her senior year was supposed to be filled with memories and she wanted to make sure that she had them. Even if she hadn’t wanted to go.
When I’d been there with her, never leaving her side, she’d confessed that she didn’t like large crowds and that she was always worried that people were silently judging her. Or looking at her and thinking bad things.
Well, one of her thoughts had been true. Everyone had been looking at her—like they were doing now—because she was just so beautiful, it was hard not to stare. To look at her and think, holy shit, she’s breathtaking.
Every time I came into contact with her over the years—whether it’d been a few days on leave or the time after I’d been out of the Navy—she’d been more breathtaking than the last.
When I pulled away this time, I couldn’t stop the kiss to the side of her mouth.
She looked at me with a small smirk on her face when she pulled away and moved to my side just in time for her best friend, Matilda, to make her appearance.
I missed what Matilda said, however, when I caught my mom looking at me with wide eyes and a questioning look on her face.
I shrugged, knowing that she was questioning what ‘that’ was with Luce.
Well, if I had my way, ‘that’ would be a ‘this.’ As in, we would be a couple and she would be mine and I could finally get everything that I’d ever wanted.
Her.
Kids.
Kids with her.
Lots and lots of them.
A big white house with a white picket fence. Two dogs, my parents and hers visiting whenever they wanted and her getting everything that she ever desired.