Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Jasper
I wipe the sweat from my brow and gather up the last of the firewood. After taking Thea so many times last night, you’d think I’d be exhausted. But I’ve never felt more energized. Just thinking about her sends a fresh wave of desire through me.
Last night, everything fell into place. She’s my meant-to-be, the reason I’ve spent so much time feeling restless. I’ll spend the rest of my life getting to know her and learning all of her secrets. It will become my mission to delight her every day. I’ll find a million little ways to tell her I love her.
First, though, I’ll make her come again on my tongue. Then I’ll convince her that she’s my soulmate before I make her come on my cock. After I’ve ravished her a few times, I’ll fill her belly with more of my cherry pie.
When she’s sated in every way, I’ll drive us into the city. We’ll go into a jeweler’s and find the biggest, brightest diamond to put on her finger. Something to show the whole world that she belongs to a rugged mountain man who loves her fiercely. She’ll ride home in my truck with me, my arm around her shoulders as we daydream about what our perfect life together is going to look like.
Content with my plan, I load the firewood onto the back porch and step into the kitchen. The moment I enter the cabin, I know something’s wrong. She’s not here anymore. I feel it in my gut.
Still, I search through every room, calling her name softly as I do. I save the bedroom for last because I want to be wrong. I want her to be asleep in my bed, her hair fanned out on my pillow as she continues to snore softly.
But the sheets are cold, and she’s nowhere to be found. She left, and she took every bit of color from my life when she did. There’s only stark gray. It was gray before her, too. But I didn’t know what it was like to have her sunshine in my heart. Now that I do, I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.
I move through my cabin like a robot, looking for anything she left behind. But the only evidence she was here is the missing piece of pie and a note she scrawled underneath the recipe page for my cherry pie.
Jasper,
It was an amazing night. You’re one of a kind. Please don’t call.
Thea
“So amazing that she never wants to see me again,” I mutter and rip the bottom of the recipe page that contains her words. I crumple the paper to toss it in the garbage can.
But then I can’t. I smooth it out and read it again, looking for anything I missed. Nope, it’s still a “thanks for the D but no thanks to your personality” note.
In one moment, I thought I found my soulmate. I thought I found forever. I rub the spot where my heart used to be because she took it with her when she left. I’m never going to be whole again.
Chapter 4
Thea
I step off the treadmill on wobbly legs and fight another wave of nausea. I still, giving myself a second to let it pass.
You’re not sick. I’ve told myself that every winter for the last four years and a cold still hasn’t dared to show up, so clearly, it’s working.
With my early-morning workout done, I grab a fruit smoothie from the juice bar and head back to my apartment. I’ve been craving cherry pie every day for weeks, but after sampling every pie in Nashville, I’ve realized that only one person knows how to do it right.
“Should have snapped a picture of his recipe,” I grumble as I let myself in. A quick shower and a fresh round of makeup, then I’ll be ready to get to the office.
My phone rings, and I grimace when I see Dotty’s name. She and Zac have been blissfully married for close to six weeks. She calls me frequently, and even though her husband is my client, I think of Dotty as a friend the same as Zac.
Normally, she calls me later in the day, when I’ve had enough time to bury myself in so much work that I forget I can barely breathe.
“You’re up early,” I chirp to her.
“Or late, because someone wouldn’t let me sleep,” she breaks into giggles. Ugh, I take it back. Even worse than attending someone’s wedding is having to hear all the newlywed joy. I’m happy for her and Zac, really.
It’s hard when my own heart feels so broken after that night with Jasper. Nothing’s felt right since then, and I’ve thought about asking Zac for Jasper’s number a thousand times. But I always chicken out.
He was amazing, and I ran away like a coward. The thought has another wave of nausea hitting me. Bile climbs the back of my throat, and I sprint to the bathroom. I end the phone call, so Dotty doesn’t have to hear me empty the contents of my stomach.