Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 39338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 197(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 39338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 197(@200wpm)___ 157(@250wpm)___ 131(@300wpm)
“I think we should go,” she whispers, breaking free of my hold. She stoops down and retrieves her purse, eyes landing on everything but me. We sidestep down the row together, past people singing along with the music. Did I say the wrong thing to her? Or did I say the right thing, and she’s too scared to accept what I’m offering?
My money is on the latter.
None of that brings me closer to being with Britta for real, though.
Only she can do that.
Chapter Seven
BRITTA
When Sumner pulls up outside my building and puts his truck in park, I unfasten my seat belt and dive out the passenger side door, fumbling my keys with useless fingers. My heart hasn’t stopped racing since we left the concert prematurely. The ride home was dead silent, so he must have heard the incessant beating. It’s going off like gunfire in my ears.
I reach the entrance of my building and hear the driver’s side door slam, too, indicating that Sumner is following me. Walking me home. Like a gentleman. But I really should not let that happen. For one, his unorthodox offer is still jogging around in the forefront of my mind.
Put parental controls on my phone, my laptop, block porn sites. Track my location. Lock my dick in a cage. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you realize I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here. I’ll make you feel secure until you realize it’s only ever going to be you.
I’m still in shock over the offer itself, which I would never accept, because that would make me controlling. But Sumner wanting to give me those reassurances felt like a giant gulp of oxygen. There’s no pretending otherwise. And that tells me a lot about myself that I didn’t know this morning. I’m scarred from the nature of my parents’ divorce and my father’s infidelity. I already knew that. But the pure yearning in my chest when Sumner told me it would only ever be me? I didn’t expect that. I didn’t see it coming.
Have I been harboring a secret hope that I could be in a normal, functioning relationship someday? Or has Sumner created that desire in me?
When I see his reflection approaching behind me in the glass door of my building and a ripple carries through my heart, I’m terrified that I have my answer.
It’s . . . him. It’s just Sumner.
Okay. Okay, I admitted it. I’m definitely falling hard for this man. But I need some time to sit with this knowledge before he comes for any more of my vulnerabilities.
“I don’t need you to walk me to my door.”
“I will always make sure you get inside safely, Britta.”
Shaking my head, I unlock the door and stomp inside, through the vestibule and up the stairs, trying very hard not to think about the fact that Sumner could almost definitely see up my skirt as he follows in my wake. In his current state, the view is probably causing him a lot of pain, and I don’t put a little extra sway in my hips, because that would be mean.
I’d probably snap your headboard in half.
A pulse between my thighs is beginning to pound with mounting insistence when I reach my apartment door. Do I want to have sex with Sumner?
Yes. Obviously, I do.
It’s the commitment he will expect afterward that scares me. Maybe with a little more time and thought, it won’t cause me to break out in a cold sweat, but right now, it does. And the idea of hurting his feelings is repugnant.
At the entrance to my apartment, I turn on a heel. “Do you want to come in and get your magazine?”
“Nope,” he says without hesitating. “Give me your phone.”
“Why—”
My mouth falls open as he steals my purse and yanks out my phone. “Password,” he says, holding it up. I narrow my eyes at him for a moment but eventually tap in the four digits, admittedly interested in seeing where this is going. He holds his phone and mine side by side, his big thumbs swiping and tapping at the screens for approximately thirty seconds before he hands mine back to me. “You’re going to know where I am from now on.”
Just like that, it’s hard for me to breathe. “I didn’t ask you for that.”
“No, but you’re getting it anyway. And if you ever want to share your location with me, I wouldn’t mind knowing where you are, either,” he says in the understatement of the year. He takes one step closer to me, two, propping his forearm above my head on the door. Lowering his mouth until it’s a whisper away from mine. “You like the reassurance, Britta, so why shouldn’t I give you something that’s so easy? I’ve got nothing to hide, and I never will.”