Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
She leans into me.
And I lean into her.
This isn’t the body of a serial killer. My hands, followed by my lips, trace every soft curve. She makes the sexiest sound when I slide my tongue between her spread legs. Her fingers dig into my back, finding old scars and making new ones while I move inside of her.
The bedsprings offer a slight protest, syncing with our labored breaths and the occasional whisper of my name … of her name … of a god whose existence feels less likely every day.
I wish we could stay like this forever because it feels like the us we’ve been searching for since the day we met. When she collapses on top of me, gasping for her next breath, I roll us to the side. Pulling the sheets over our naked, entwined bodies, I drift off to sleep with the first girl who felt like the sun. The air. Gravity. And my whole world and reason for existing.
My alarm goes off at five.
No Josie.
But my sheets smell like flowers and spring rain … and maybe a hint of formaldehyde, so it’s a damn good morning.
I hope.
I slip on jogging shorts and a hoodie and grab my tennis shoes before heading downstairs. Josie’s not in the family room or the kitchen, but there’s a note by my coffeemaker.
Pilates. Shower. Breakfast. Work. Thanks for letting me lean in. XO ~J
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“I can go,” Dr. Cornwell says at the morning meeting.
“If you don’t quit coddling me, I’m going to lose it.” It’s too late. I can’t walk back those words. Lose it like Winston Jeffries? I sigh. “I did fine yesterday.”
Not counting the breakdown by the vending machine.
“It was my case. I wrote the report. I can testify in court. I’m fine. Really.”
He slides his reading glasses up his nose. “Very well then. Off you go.” He gives me a shooing motion with his hand.
After I get to the courthouse, wait forever to get through security, use the restroom, and make my way toward the courtroom, I run into Dylan Paine.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” she says, applying lip gloss before going into the courtroom.
“I’m testifying.”
“I know.” She pauses her motions and gives her lips a light tap together. “I’m just surprised.”
“Why? Because you don’t think I’m a real doctor?”
Dylan grins. “I’ve never said that. I just think you’re young, not as experienced as Dr. Cornwell.”
“Funny … I have a long list of people who I think are more experienced than you, but I don’t feel the need to remind you.”
She draws her head back a few inches. I’m a little punchy today. Just as she starts to speak, the elevator dings, and the doors open.
Dylan smiles, and I glance over my shoulder at Colten. Chicago’s too big, and so is this courthouse to find myself stuck in this same threesome again. It has to be part of my atonement.
“Detective Mosely. It’s always nice to see you.” Dylan bats her fake eyelashes.
Maybe she and her husband have an open marriage, but I doubt it. I think she’s nothing more than a disingenuous whore.
Wow, Josie … who are you?
Colten gives her a tiny smile and walks toward me, stopping with a good three feet between us. “Morning,” he says.
Just as Dylan opens her mouth to speak, I take two steps closer to him. Way closer than colleagues or even friends would stand. Through the corner of my eye, I see her mouth clamp shut, choking on her unspoken words. I couldn’t care less about her. She needs to get her ass into the courtroom and start making her case before the DA puts me on the stand to obliterate every shred of evidence she thinks she has to exonerate her client.
“You look…” the corner of Colten’s mouth curls a fraction “…pretty today.”
My grin doesn’t hold back, especially when Dylan makes a tiny huffing noise and clicks her heels into the courtroom. “Do you remember the first time you called me pretty?”
Colten presses his lips together for a few seconds. “That’s a hard one because I thought it so many times. When did I get the nerve to say it?”
“The first time you saw me trying on fly fishing waders in the garage. You weren’t saying it as a compliment.”
His barely detectable smirk morphs into a full-on shit-eating grin. “Yes, I was absolutely complimenting you. I hid most of my compliments behind sarcasm because it was the only way I could say them to you without you making fun of me.”
I roll my eyes. “So your game was to make fun of me before I made fun of you?”
“My game was to give you the illusion that I was making fun of you, when in reality, I was a lovesick boy.”
I wet my lips because they are not glossed like Dylan’s—and because I want Colten to kiss me.