Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
I watch her as she looks it up and down. I can’t believe she’s standing here beside me now.
Part of me is still burning with jealousy inside. She may not have gotten up on that stage back at the club, and she may not have taken her top off, but those men in there still got a look at her in her fishnets and lingerie, and just thinking about that has me clutching my hands into fists and grinding my teeth against each other.
“How?” she asks, turning to face me. “How did you do this, Jameson?”
I turn to her and smile. “Come inside and I’ll tell you everything.”
I slide my key into the lock and open the front door for her like a gentleman. Flashbacks of our time together when we were young hit me like my life has just become a movie. All the things I used to do for her just to try and make her life easier. It’s like we’re right back there three years ago as she steps past me into the house.
She’s wearing some kind of perfume—or maybe it’s body lotion. Either way, I’m not used to smelling it on her, and I don’t know how to mentally process it. But my body sure does.
A rush of heat flows through me, igniting every manly urge I have in me all at once. Even wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, Iris looks incredible. I don’t know how I didn’t fully realize it until now back when I was standing beside her and she was barely wearing anything at all. I guess I was just caught up in getting her the hell out of that sleazy club. But now that we’re back at my house and I know she’s safe, I’m completely overwhelmed by her beauty.
The last three years have been more than kind to her. She’s fully blossomed in a big way. If there’s any stage Iris belongs on, it’s sure not one in some small-town strip club; it’s a runway in Manhattan, modeling for one of the top fashion agencies in the world. But even then, I don’t know how I could ever let that happen. I’d still be way too jealous. I mean, this is a girl who had plans to be a doctor, for Christ’s sake. That is until that bum of a father of hers bailed on her and destroyed everything she was dreaming of.
But as I look at her standing in front of me like pure beauty manifested into human form, I can think only one thing:
You did it, Jameson. You made your way back to her.
“I’m sorry,” I say. Iris turns around to face me. Her eyes are like volumes of a magical library I can’t wait to delve into. She has questions for me, sure, but I have just as many for her. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been thinking since I left.”
Iris half-shrugs and cocks her head to the side like she does when she’s just a little bit embarrassed and not quite sure what to say. She kicks her left foot out and swings her hands, averting her gaze.
“A lot of possibilities came to mind. They got weirder and weirder as time passed. It started with you guys just running away for whatever reason, and then next thing I know, I was thinking you’d been kidnapped, abducted by aliens, or you and your family were all on a secret mission for the CIA.”
She laughs nervously. I walk over to her and take both of her hands in mine. She doesn’t shy or pull away, but it takes a long moment before she’s able to meet my eyes with hers.
“It was aliens,” I say.
Thankfully, she laughs. And so do I.
I want to kiss her so badly right now, but I know it’s still not the right time. Not yet. So I walk her into the living room and sit down on the couch beside her.
“All right, Iris. You asked me already. Let me tell you where I’ve been for the last three years.”
Chapter 5
Iris
I’m doing my best not to be overwhelmed, but it’s nearly impossible. Just seeing Jameson again at the club was a mental overload, but then there was all that money he was just throwing around like a mobster, and then the Porsche he drove like a movie star, and now we’re sitting in the Morgan Manor—which must have cost him a fortune to refurbish. I’m starting to feel like maybe the door at Jaguars was actually something out of a sci-fi television show, and I actually stepped into an alternate reality where everything I’ve ever wished for just came true.
After all, it sure seems like that’s what’s happening tonight.
Jameson is back, and he’s looking better than ever. He’s apparently rich, he swooped in and saved me from having to work a night at the club that I really was not looking forward to working at, and on top of that, there’s something even more capable about him than he used to be. And this is a guy I already thought of as the most capable man in the world.