Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“Good.” I sighed.
“It’s just us.”
“Okay.”
“Okay,” he repeated, exhaling, then kissed me again.
As soon as we stepped outside on the street, I felt the heat and humidity hit me. It was like moving through soup.
“You’re sure you wanna walk?” I asked him. “It’s summer in the city.”
“Yeah,” he replied, taking hold of my hand. “I like to walk.”
“And suddenly, so do I,” I told him, squeezing tight for a moment before lifting his hand and kissing his knuckles.
“So cheesy,” he said, shaking his head, but the important part wasn’t his words, but how he was looking at me. I thought I’d never seen love in those gorgeous eyes before, but it turned out I had because there it was, clear as day, right there, all for me.
“Come on,” he said softly, tugging on my hand. “It’s time to go home.”
And finally, it was.
But then, because I questioned everything… “You do mean to my apartment, right? That’s the only place we can actually walk to from here.”
Heavy sigh from him. “You’re killing my grand romantic moment,” he groused.
“Well, I’m sorry, but there ain’t no walkin’ to your place in this heat.”
He squinted at me. “Fine, we’ll get a cab.”
“It don’t make a bit of sense to go to your place.”
“But mine is better than yours.”
No argument there.
He had a fantastic apartment in River North that was three thousand square feet, with three bedrooms, his, a guest one, and one he’d turned into an office, or, as he called it, his den. He had a huge kitchen with more storage space than I could imagine anyone needing, all done in cream and glass, with an island. When he’d moved in, he had a dining room and a living room, but that didn’t suit him, so he’d knocked down the wall between them. Now instead of having small, cramped spaces, he had an open floor plan. On one side was a huge sectional, an overstuffed chair, an ottoman, and a great entertainment center. The other half of the area he’d turned into a library with built-in bookshelves and one of those cool rolling ladders. The fireplace was on that side, along with a huge, thick, soft rug, a rustic-looking coffee table, a window with a nook to sit and read, a love seat, a big wingback chair with another ottoman, and lots of throw pillows. When he had parties here, there was no shortage of places to sit, but inevitably, people congregated on the side where the books were and not where the TV was. I think the draw was the coziness.
“Where did you go?”
“Sorry,” I said, smiling at him. “I was thinkin’ about your home and how nice it is.”
“Oh yeah? You like my place?”
“You know I do.”
“Good, good. That’s…good.”
“Why’s that?”
“I like the idea of you being there with me.”
“That’s a nice thing to say, but it still don’t make no sense for us to go there tonight.”
“Why?” he said sulkily.
I shrugged. “Because tomorrow is laundry day, so if you’re wantin’ me to stay the night, that means you’re gonna have to drive me home first thing in the mornin’.”
“No,” he said, and I could hear the growl in his voice that let me know he was tired. And that made sense. We’d put in a really long day. “I just want to lie down and not worry about getting up.”
I chuckled. “So maybe you come on home with me, we’ll wake up in the mornin’—I have some of your clothes at my place—I’ll shower, you’ll shower, and then we’ll go get us some breakfast before we start.”
He exhaled sharply.
“Sound good?”
“Fine.”
“Good,” I said, tugging on his hand to steer him toward my apartment. “Now, while we walk, can I ask you a few things?”
“Of course,” he agreed, dropping my hand but stepping in closer and draping his arm around my shoulders.
I took a breath. “Are you gonna tell your mother about me?”
“My mother knows you,” he said, and when I turned my head, I saw his grin.
“You know what I mean.”
“Well, considering I already had a talk with her about it, I’ll have to tell her that I finally made my intentions, as she called them, known.”
I stopped walking and shoved him away from me, which only made him snicker.
“You told your mother?” I was indignant.
“Don’t yell. People will think we’re fighting out here,” he said, grinning like crazy.
“What did you tell her?”
He gestured for me. “Come back over here.”
“No, you tell me what you said first.”
“What are you, five?” he baited me. “Come here.”
No way was I going to say no when I’d been dreaming of this exact thing, him all over me on purpose.
Once I was close enough, his arm went around my neck, and he pulled me against him and kissed my temple.
I couldn’t stifle a moan.
“That was a good sound,” he murmured in my ear.