Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
His face had been buried in my neck. I wanted to look at him, to see his face, but I was half afraid that once I pulled back and saw the pain in his eyes, I’d lose it all over again, even if he was okay.
When both our breathing had returned to normal and neither of us was crying anymore, I cleared my hoarse throat. “Do you want me to get you something to drink? A water or something?”
Bennett shook his head, keeping it down so I couldn’t see him, but one of his hands lifted to my face.
He pressed his palm to my cheek and whispered, “Thank you.”
“Anytime.” I smiled sadly, taking his hand from my face and bringing it to my lips. “Anytime.”
He lifted his head and leaned his forehead to mine. His eyes were swollen and red, but the half smile he managed was real. “Thanks for the offer. But I’m hoping that was the first and last time you’ll be seeing that.”
He sounded more like Bennett already.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
He looked up. “Not yet.”
“Okay. Well, you know where to find me if you do.”
He grinned sadly. “In Texas?”
I started to laugh. “Boy, that didn’t take you long. And here I was thinking you’d be nice to me after how nice I was to you. I should’ve known better.”
Bennett scooped me up and surprised me by swinging me up to the top of the bed near the headboard. He climbed on top of me. “Are you saying I owe you one?”
I nodded with a giant, ear-to-ear grin. “Maybe more than one.”
He chuckled. “Well, I’d better get started on that right away.”
His face moved to my neck once more, only this time he definitely wasn’t crying. We wrapped ourselves around one another. Not ten minutes ago, we’d both been emotional wrecks, and now those feelings had transformed into want and need.
Bennett kissed me passionately, with so much tenderness and worship. Our desire for one another had never been an issue, but this moment felt different for some reason. When he broke the kiss to slip off my clothes, he looked down at me as if no one else in the world existed. The smile he wore when he pushed inside of me touched me deeply. I knew in my heart that something had changed. Then he solidified that feeling by making love to me for the very first time.
***
“I told Lucas the truth about me tonight.”
The room was pitch dark. I’d just started to doze off and couldn’t be sure if I’d heard him right. “The truth?”
I felt him nod, even if I couldn’t see it. My head was tucked into the crook of his shoulder, and he continued to stroke my hair gently as he spoke.
“Sophie was my best friend. People thought it was weird that we spent so much time together but weren’t hooking up. She was like the little sister I never had, even though we were the same age. We were nineteen when she got pregnant with some loser’s baby. Her mother kicked her out, and she came to stay with me in my dorm room for a while and then went back home. It went like that off and on for years. But after I graduated, she couldn’t take it at home with Fanny anymore. We got an apartment together so we could share expenses and I could help out with Lucas while she went to cosmetology school at night.”
He paused, and I waited in silence until he was ready to continue.
“One night she got out of class early. Lucas was already asleep in her room. I’d met a woman in our building, and we’d started hanging out once in a while. Sophie walked in on me and her having sex in my room.” He blew out a deep breath. “I don’t even remember the woman’s name. Anyway, Sophie freaked out, saying Lucas could’ve walked in on us, and we had a big fight. The next night, she dropped Lucas off at her mother’s instead of leaving him home with me when she went to school. Or at least I thought she went to school. A buddy of mine called later that night and said he was at a bar, and Sophie was there, and she was pretty loaded. So I drove to pick her up. It was a shitty night, pouring out, and I found her making out with some dirtbag biker. There was a big scene—the biker wanted to kick my ass, but I got her the hell out of there before she did something stupid.”
He took another deep breath.
“Our fight continued in the car, and Sophie kissed me.”
“She kissed you?”
“I thought she was just drunk at first. I pushed her off me and told her to cut the shit. But she started to cry. Then everything came out. She told me she’d been in love with me for years. Apparently the night before hadn’t been about finding me with another woman while Lucas was sound asleep; it was because she had feelings for me.”