Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
“Is that you?” her cousin followed up.
“Its me,” Delaney called back. “You’re still up?”
A chuckle echoed behind Delaney. A dark laugh that definitely did not belong to Bexley.
“It’s not that late,” Lucas said. “Almost eleven.”
Fair enough.
Maybe she had been secretly hoping her cousin would be out—enjoying the town herself, like Bexley usually spent her evenings—or sleeping. Although, it wasn’t like Delaney needed another reason to break one of her rules.
“No, just getting out of the shower. Give me five minutes to get dressed,” Bexley said, her voice a little louder for a second before Delaney heard the distinct click of the bathroom door closing.
With a handful of minutes to spare, Delaney turned in the opened doorway of the apartment to face the grinning man standing just outside in the hallway. Both his hands pressed flat to the doorjamb so he could lean down closer to Delaney.
“You really didn’t have to walk me all the way to my door,” she said. “Inside the front would have been fine, too.”
Lucas shook his head like that wasn’t even an option. “No way. I watch too much true crime to let you do that.”
Delaney lifted an eyebrow high in silent question.
He shrugged, adding lower, “Hey, you don’t know the kind of porn buddy upstairs binges for twenty hours a day, you know what I mean? I’m just saying.”
Yikes.
She didn’t want to know the kind of true crime rabbit hole he had found if those were the kind of concerns he kept in the back of his mind.
“And maybe I wanted to do this one more time but out of the cold,” he said.
Before she could ask what he wanted to do, Lucas showed her. He caught her lips with his own when she tilted her head upwards, but the softness in the kiss left her mouth tingling with the ghost of him even after he’d pulled away.
“Get some sleep,” he told her, pushing back from the door to stand to his full height.
Delaney didn’t move from the doorway. “Are we gonna do this again?”
Lucas didn’t hesitate for a second. “Absolutely. The first chance we can.”
“I could let you know what my next couple of weeks look like?”
“Please do.”
Delaney’s smile bloomed. “I’ll do that. For what it’s worth, I don’t mind the drive to Saint John, either. And I love to watch the ships in the harbor.”
“Good to know,” he murmured.
For a moment, Lucas waffled on the spot as his gaze traveled to the end of the hallway where the exit door to the stairwell waited to take him back downstairs to the main entry floor. He shifted from one shoe to the other, and even shoved his hands into his pockets.
She thought she knew what he wanted.
Maybe.
Because she wanted it, too.
“One more for good measure?”
Lucas’ gaze swung back on her, but it blazed. “And sweet dreams?”
That sounded perfect to her.
“Please,” she whispered.
He met her in the doorway again, and his arms snaked around her waist to cage her close. Where the lit of the hallway and the shadows of her apartment met. His first kiss landed on the apple of her right cheek before he quickly dropped another on the other side. Delaney’s fingers curled into the open lapels of his blazer in an effort to keep them both there in that moment, when his soft lips pressed against her forehead with hushed words.
“More than one—just because,” he told her.
Well, she wanted the extra.
He definitely deserved it.
Her head fell back so she could catch the last kiss where she wanted it the most. Not that she needed to test her already-fragile self control where Lucas was concerned, but she couldn’t stop from losing herself in that lingering kiss.
For a second, anyway.
They both knew it couldn’t last forever.
The other person in the equation reminded the two of that fact when Bexley made her entrance from the bathroom. The short hallway connected to the bathroom and bedrooms walked straight out into the middle of the apartment where Bexley had a good view of the two still standing close together in the doorway.
“Oh!”
Delaney grinned, and patted Lucas’ heavily rising chest with both hands as he backed away. “Call me tomorrow?”
“You bet,” he murmured.
“Have a good night!” Bexley called.
Lucas waved two fingers in return for a goodbye, but saved a wink for Delaney before she had to watch his back retreat down the hall. Her hormones did all the internal screaming for her demanding that he stay—screw the fact the apartment had thin walls and her morals were beginning to get even thinner in the process.
The click of the metal fire exit door at the end of the hall closed the chapter on the night for Delaney, but she remained leaning in the doorway for a beat or two longer. Not because she expected the man to turn around—Lucas didn’t seem like the type to push boundaries—but because she wanted to enjoy the culmination of their evening together.