Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76172 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76172 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
The confession is difficult to make out loud even though it’s been floating in my head since I was able to sit down at my machine in this room for the first time. Yet, I’ve still taken more orders since then.
“I can help. There are others who can help.”
“I need to do this on my own.”
“You need to be able to admit when you’re drowning. There’s no shame in needing help.”
“I—”
My eyes flutter closed when his palm lifts to my face.
“We can get the balls ready to go in no time.”
“It’s not just getting them on the machine,” I explain. “I didn’t take into consideration the time it takes to cut them open, create each individual file, run the program, and then stitch them all back together. Just the file creation alone is going to take several days.”
“Leave that part with me,” he says, pulling out his phone and firing off a text before shoving it back into his front pocket.
“It’s still going to take forever.” I hate how whiny my voice sounds. I hate it even more that I sound like a kid complaining rather than a business owner who needs to search for a solution.
“It can’t take forever,” he says as he steps back. “You owe me a date when it’s done, remember?”
It feels like he’s offering me a reward of sorts, a bonus for completing a job, and I love the sound of it.
“I’ll be thirty myself by then. My obligation is to my backers and clients.”
“That’s very mature.”
He steps even closer, and I start to wonder if a ten-minute break, one filled with our lips locked together and hands roaming, isn’t such a bad thing.
All I get, however, is a brush of his lips before a throat clears near the door.
I want to stomp my damn foot.
“You needed me?”
I look around Emmett to see Max standing there.
“Yeah,” Emmett says. “I was hoping you could help us with something.”
Chapter 22
Legacy
“What’s going on?” Devyn asks as she takes a cautious step into the room.
“We’re working,” Oracle explains, holding the seam ripper up for her to see.
She doesn’t look relieved. She looks terrified as if she’s worried we’re in here sabotaging her and setting her back further than she was when she went to bed only a few hours ago. I stayed here with her the entire time helping her, but it became very clear very quickly that she was right. She was underwater, and although she technically has time to do this all on her own, the amount of work she’s facing would end up leaving her disheartened. I’ve told myself over and over I’m helping her, but honestly, I’m growing anxious for that damn date. I wanted it to take a long time, but I’m finding that I’m actually a little impatient about it. The sooner she can knock this order out, the easier it will be for me to convince her to take an evening off and have dinner with me.
I grin at Oracle. The man was so willing to help, but I get the feeling that he no longer has his sights set on her. I don’t know if the dating question made him change his mind or if he’s a better guy than I originally assumed and he’s stepping out of the way for me. I can say with a hundred percent certainty that she deserves better than him because he’s been here a week or so and I’ve already seen him having breakfast with two different conquests before he sent them on their way.
Instead of staying across the room, I approach her, brushing a kiss on her lips, half because I can’t resist and half because I don’t want Oracle changing his mind.
She blinks up at me when I take a step back, that sexy pink tongue of hers licking at the taste of my lips left behind.
“How did you sleep?”
“Alone,” she says, the words soft and absent as if she didn’t mean to say it out loud.
“That’s good to hear,” I say, knowing there’s a very slim chance Kincaid would let anyone in his house even if she had options. Hell, I wouldn’t take that chance.
“Would’ve been better if you were there.”
It wouldn’t take much for me to get completely lost in this woman. Just the sight of her turns me on more than any other woman who came before her. I open my mouth to tell her she’s wrong. If I were in bed with her, the last thing that would happen would be sleep.
“I can’t concentrate with all these pheromones floating through the air,” Oracle says, laughter in his tone.
Her cheeks heat, pinkness crawling up her throat, making me wonder what a flush from an orgasm would look like on her perfect skin.
“Let’s get to work,” I tell her, more for my benefit than hers.