Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Shaking his head, he sank into the booth beside me.
God, he still smelled superb, all leathery and man. I gripped my phone in my hand. Why did fate have to hate me so much? “You did not just trap me in?”
“If the reason you—”
“Look, Vance. I know you got someone else pregnant.” It was better to get it out in the open. Or at least I’d thought it would be until a slight smirk caught his lips.
“That’s the only reason?” he said, as if his impregnating someone else wasn’t reason enough. “Not because you don’t like me or don’t want to be in a relationship?”
Before I could slap him, he’d caught my wrist.
“I didn’t get anyone pregnant, Blake. My idiot friend, Theo, said he ran the My Dick Travels website and—”
“You expect me to believe that?” One thing I hadn’t thought Vance would do was blatantly lie about it. The temptation to snatch the bouquet from the table and smack him in the face was hard to deny.
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Blake.”
I’d expected groveling or his telling me it was none of my business. Or maybe that’s what I’d wanted him to do. But expect or want, whatever it was, it was not this load of steaming crap. “My sister, Grace, told me you knocked her up.”
I waited for what I’d just said to sink in, waited for the shock to ripple across his face. But his expression remained unchanged.
“Did you hear what I said, Vance?” Hurt rose in my chest like a plume of cloying smoke. “You impregnated my little sister!”
“I’ve never met your sister in my life.”
That plume of hurt erupted into rage. I snatched the flowers from the table and swatted his stupid face. “You asshole!” I whacked him again and again, sending red rose petals and leaves scattering the table. My next viral video could be, “Adrenaline Boner Girl attacks man in a two-star Chinese buffet restaurant,” for all I cared.
“Jesus. The thorns!” He seized the destroyed bouquet from my grasp and chucked it to the empty side of the booth just as a couple with plates of lo mein walked by, staring. “Listen to me. My roommate lied and told your sister he ran the My Dick Travels site.”
Lies upon lies. “I don’t have time for this shit.” I went to shove him out of the booth, but he didn’t budge.
“Blake. Did she say my name?”
“What?”
“Did your sister say, ‘Vance, the My Dick Travels’ guy knocked me up’?”
Why would she have needed to say Vance? Vance was the My Dick Travels guy. “No, but—”
“And you say you’re cursed...” He swiped a hand over the fresh scratches on his cheek. “Who knew roses could be used as a weapon?” He lifted his ass from the vinyl seat and dug his phone from his pocket.
The device landed on top of the stray petals decorating the greasy table. Theo’s name flashed across the screen. Three rings came through the speaker before the person on the other end picked up. “Dude. This isn’t a good time, I’m—”
“I’ve got you on speaker, Theo. Tell Blake what you did, or I’m going to change the locks to the apartment.”
“Just so you know, Vance. You’re a dick. I was having sex.”
“I don’t give a shit what you were doing, Theo.” Vance drummed his fingers over the table. “Tell her.”
“Fine. Blake, I may have told your sister I was the My Dick Travels guy.”
“You did what?” That angry-sounding voice belonged to my sister. “How do you know Blake?”
“She’s fucking my best friend, who is the real My Dick Travels guy. So, when you told her you were pregnant, she thought it was his, and well—” A loud, high-pitched, male scream came through the line before something crashed in the background, followed by my sister threatening to castrate Theo. Then the line cut off.
Vance swiped off the call, his green eyes landing on mine as he took my chin in his hand. “Nothing about this is a mistake, Blake. And you know how I know?”
I fought back the choking feeling in my throat when his large hand cupped my cheek.
“Because nothing about this makes sense,” he said.
Just what I’d always wanted to hear a man say. “How romantic.”
“Give me a second.” His eyes searched mine as his fingers caressed my face. “I love that you’re disorganized, even though I hate it when anyone else is. I live for your quirky comments, for the ridiculous way you duck because you think a pigeon is going to fly at your head. I would do any damn thing to see you smile and everything to avoid hurting you.” A smile twitched his lips before he touched his forehead to mine. “I bought a fucking thesaurus before we left for Europe, just to have better words to use when we argue. This isn’t a mistake.” His brow furrowed. His hand slipped from my cheek to my jaw, cradling it. “I know it’s not a mistake because I love you. I really fucking love you, Blake.”