Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Maybe he did have a point about needing to eat.
Though it galled her to admit it, she still pulled out the chair and unwrapped the silverware. After adding salt and pepper, she reached for the grape jelly and spread it on her toast. How he’d known she preferred dry toast she didn’t know. But then she saw pats of butter off to the side.
Still, it could have come slathered on. Shaking her head, refusing to give in to any fanciful notions of any future with this man, she lifted her fork and began to eat. Halfway through, she went for her legal pad and set it at her left side while she went back to eating, jotting notes when they came to her and thoughts as she worked during her meal.
Her phone rang and she ran over numbers in her mind as she walked to her cell and picked it up. “Hello?”
“Heard from Ren you had an admirer down there in the Crescent City.”
Tapping her phone to activate the speaker, she retook her seat. “Violet. I thought you were on your way out of the country.”
“I am. But Ren called to update me on the fun you had while he stopped by. And then he let it slip about tall, dark and broody eyeing you like you had ‘Property of Mr. Livingston Rhodes’ all over your ass.”
She sucked her teeth and reached for the cup of hot cocoa, which wasn’t as warm anymore, and took a much-needed sip.
“Ohh, silence. You fucked him again, didn’t you.”
Daisy simply waited. Her sister wasn’t asking questions but making statements. All in all, she wasn’t required to respond.
Not yet anyway.
“Was he good? Ride it hard?”
“Why are you tormenting me?”
Violet, one of the women she considered a sister even though they had no family in common aside from the woman who had raised them, chortled before she began making all kinds of obscene noises.
Daisy choked on her food and reached for her drink and tried to soothe her throat. Her sister didn’t stop, in fact, she got worse, and finally Daisy just stopped trying to eat or drink anything. She could imagine Violet gyrating around the room she was currently in, thrusting her hips, dry humping something—more like anything—around.
The woman had zero shame.
“When you’re finished,” she snipped.
“I think the question is, are you finished? I’m betting that hot jug of sexiness is a ride that would be perfect more than once. Like daily.”
“Oh my God, stop. I’m trying to eat.”
That shut her up. Then she hmmm’d.
“What now?” Daisy asked, reaching for the toast with grape jelly and tearing off a bite.
“You eat early. What happened that you’re only eating now?”
Damn it for being so predictable and them knowing her schedule. She cleared her throat, not really sure how to answer this.
It didn’t matter and she should have known it wouldn’t. Violet knew her so well. She laughed again. “Oh, you are such a nasty dirty freak. You fucked him all night and he got you breakfast.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Vi.”
“Don’t I?”
Daisy pressed her lips together, not wanting to answer her sister.
“Exactly,” she said with more than her share of arrogance. “I looked him up online after you told us he was the hottie you fucked in Seattle.” She whistled. “Dude is hot. Looks like he can bring it, but I’m not going to ask because I know he can, given how you acted after Seattle. So, I’m going to leave you with this. Enjoy your time with him, don’t think about anything other than doing your job and doing him.”
“It’s not professional.”
“I’m sure whatever you’re doing to him a professional could take lessons from. Maybe I’ll get a niece or nephew out of the deal. That would be payment enough for encouraging you to let your freak flag fly.”
Violet hung up the phone after blowing her a kiss.
Chapter Six
The drumming of Livingston’s fingers echoed in the large room, accented by the rain slapping against the window. Outside wasn’t nice. Winter had definitely descended upon them. He rocked back in his leather chair and steepled his fingers as he turned to the glass.
It had killed Livingston to leave Daisy’s bed. He’d longed for nothing more than to stay with her wrapped up in his arms, sleeping. His lips twitched. Among other things, but the way she’d curled into him while she’d been dead to the world had been incredible. She trusted him to keep her safe from anything that may come her way.
Even if she’d not voiced those words, her actions had done so. The way she’d clung to him, her slender leg wedged between his as she had lain plastered to him, breathing deep and slow.
God, he hadn’t wanted to leave her but he had a business to run and a brother to find. Even so, he hadn’t been able to resist watching the camera in the hall to their suites after he’d called in breakfast for her. While he may not have been there when she woke, he wanted her to know she wasn’t far from his thoughts.