Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“Um, breakfast?” she says.
I take a step back, too aware of the house. Roger or Janine could look out here at any second.
“Sure,” I say gruffly, relieved the dream is starting to fade.
I remember the essence of it, something to do with the taboo wrongness of Evie and me, but not the details.
“Is everything okay?” she asks.
“Fine,” I grunt.
She huffs and turns. “Okay, then. See you in a minute.”
She walks away angrily, braid jostling against her back. I’ve got to stop doing that to my woman, creating a connection and then severing it, upsetting her when there’s no need. After showering and getting dressed, I walk into the kitchen to find Evie, Roger, and Janine sitting around a large spread.
Janine grins over at me. “I love an excuse to make a breakfast feast.”
“It looks delicious,” I tell her, sitting down. “Thank you.”
Evie sits across from me, next to her father. She looks at me once as we eat, Roger talking about one of his accounting clients. She’s sulking as if she wanted me to kiss her back there while knowing that we can’t.
“Is today the day?” Roger asks once his accounting story ends.
“The day?” Evie asks.
Roger laughs, beaming, having no idea I could wreck his reality with a few words. “Third time’s the charm for the tattoo, right? I know a lot’s going on, what with your old boss and everything.”
“Oh,” Evie says, finally looking at me again.
For a quick moment, she bites her lip, and I have to remind myself where I am and what’s at stake. What would happen if I flipped the table, threw her over my shoulder, and greedily massaged her thick ass and legs before carrying her somewhere private?
“I can, if you want,” Evie says.
“Don’t be so nervous,” Roger says, touching his daughter’s arm. “Brian doesn’t bite.”
Maybe not usually, but I’d like to bite my woman’s thigh softly, just enough to turn her creamy skin the same blushing shade as her cheeks. Or her big juicy ass when she’s bent over in front of me…
“We could do it today,” she says, shrugging. “If you’re not busy?”
I nod. “That sounds great.”
But it doesn’t, because I know what will happen if I take my shirt off near this woman. It’s like sending my body a message that it’s time to get fully naked, reveal my cock, slip it…
Fuck. I can’t stop. Ever. Time to go cold again. Distance myself.
“Soon, you’ll be working for my best friend,” Roger says, with that classic Roger grin on his face, wide and accepting and just a little bit naïve. Just a tiny bit, however, now the effect seems exaggerated, but that could be because I know the truth. I know what filth I really am, fantasizing about his daughter while eating from his table.
“I just hope everything works out with Keith,” Janine says, shooting me a look.
“I swear, I’ll do everything in my power to keep you all safe,” I tell her. “He’s a dirtbag. A wannabe tough guy. He doesn’t deserve your fear.”
“Wannabe?” Janine says. “I thought he was involved in organized crime.”
“His uncle is, but Keith is an overgrown kid.”
“Don’t worry,” Roger says. “Brian’s a Marine. He’s got contacts in the CIA. He knows what he’s doing.”
I latch onto his confidence, tell myself I will remember it, and keep it planted in my mind. Maybe it will give me the motivation I need to stay the hell away from his daughter.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
Evie
“So it’s just the two of you at the house right now?” Kelly asks, grinning at me from my laptop screen.
She’s on the bus, sitting at the back as usual, staring into her phone.
“Don’t grin at me like that,” I say. “Nothing’s going to happen, except we’ve got our tattoo session arranged… for the third time.”
“If the mafia man doesn’t get to you first?”
I laugh humorlessly. It’s more her tone than anything, the sense of surrealness.
“Life’s getting very strange very fast,” I say.
“Still, dreams coming true… You can’t complain too much, right?”
I glare. “Yes, I can complain because whenever I dreamed about this, it was… well… exactly that. A dream. When something is a dream, I don’t have to think about all the other factors like Dad, betrayal, and that Brian thinks it’s weird.”
“He said that?”
I nod. “I used to call him uncle. He used to call me kiddo. He doesn’t like that.”
“Well…” Kelly shrugs, the phone shifting. “I’m on your side, but I see his point.”
“You don’t think I see it?”
“It’s different for you, Evie. You’ve imagined being with him so many times. Until he retired and moved back home, he never thought of this. It’s all new to him.”
“Maybe I should tell him about the crush,” I say, my tone grim. “You know… and really freak him out.”
Kelly frowns, and I can tell she thinks I’m being serious.