Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79139 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Seamus sighed. “Thank you for stroking my ruffled ego.”
She laughed softly and kissed his cheek. “They don’t know? Your family?”
“No. I’ve never… My friend in high school tried but—” He took a shaky breath and shook his head against hers. “I wanted children. I wanted what my parents had. Throwing that away on something I wasn’t even sure about…”
Her expression was full of compassion. “The world finally caught up, Seamus. You can have it all with anyone now. Man or woman.”
Seamus grimaced. “I can’t have what I want with someone like Bellamy, Gill. He’s nothing like us. He’s not that guy.”
“He could surprise you.” At his derisive snort, her lips quirked. “But if he doesn’t, don’t you think the man who’s never had a vacation or danced since his high school prom deserves one wild, hot fling with a sexy man who clearly wants him?”
He’d denied his feelings for so long, it wasn’t easy to accept what she was saying. But the fact that she was saying it meant more than he could ever express. “You don’t hate me?”
“I could never hate you, Seamus Finn. Honestly, I’ve been wanting to thank you. I thought I couldn’t give my all to my job and have a family of my own, but you’ve shown me I can because you do it every day. And it’s nice to have a peer appreciate what I’ve made here. Believe me, you’ll not be getting rid of me easily.”
She wrapped her arms around him and he buried his face in her neck, enjoying the moment of complete acceptance she was offering. Whether or not he took her advice, he’d never forget this.
Gillian tensed in his arms and pulled away with a supportive smile. “I think I’ll go make sure my father doesn’t need my help. We’ll talk more later.” She glanced over his shoulder. “Hello there, Bellamy.”
If he was hoping for some time to come to terms with what just happened, he wasn’t getting it. When he turned, an angry Bellamy Demir was striding toward him.
And just like that his heart was racing. The way it should have when he kissed Gillian. The way it never did for anyone else.
Bellamy waited for Gillian to disappear before he spoke, his voice hard and cutting. “Looks like it went well, then. Was it worth the wait, Seamus? Did you set a date?”
Every muscle in his body tightened until he felt like he was vibrating. “None of your business, Bellamy.”
He tried to walk around him but Bellamy got in his way. “I lost the dare, didn’t I? I deserve to know how it went.”
Seamus felt his own anger rising to meet Bellamy’s and crowded him like he was looking for a fight. He bumped him with his chest and shoulders in a repeat of what the man had done to him a few days ago, advancing until his back was against the wall. “What exactly do you want from me, Demir? Why are you there every time I turn around?”
“I’ve been asking myself the same question. Is it too much to ask for you to admit there’s something between us?” Anger made his slight accent more pronounced. “Something you don’t have with Gillian or anyone else?”
Was Bellamy jealous? “I don’t want there to be anything between us! Don’t you get that? I have a plan for my future and you don’t figure into it, and if you’re honest, I don’t figure into yours either. Oh, you think you want me, or maybe I’m some kind of challenge to stave off your obvious boredom—like those fights, I don’t know. You run with fucking bulls, so hanging around a bar every night waiting for me to come out of the closet must seem pretty damn dull to you.” He shook his head, telling himself to let him go. To step back and walk away. “I don’t even know why you’re here. I don’t know anything about you, and strangers don’t get a say in who I can and can’t kiss.”
Bellamy was staring at his lips. “I was here for a meeting with the hotel’s owner. I stayed for you. And after what we did on that massage table, I’m not as much of a stranger as you’d like to believe.”
He’d stayed for him? “I haven’t had sex in a few years, Bellamy. And when I say a few? I’m practically a damn cicada.”
Bellamy lifted an eyebrow. “I know it hasn’t been seventeen years since you’ve had sex, Seamus.”
He growled in frustration, at Bellamy, at the erection threatening to bust through his zipper. “It feels like it. What I’m saying is, I’m not ruled by my sexual urges and I’m not in the market for a one-off. Am I physically attracted to you? Obviously yes, but you and I don’t make any sense at all. I had a blowjob in high school. That’s the sum total of my experience with guys and the only experience I was ever planning to have. That’s what you’ve wasted a week on. Let’s just chalk it up to a physical reaction to outside stimuli. Hell, Connor or any one of Gill’s brothers could have done what you did and gotten the same reaction.”