Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 69413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
>>Jamie: Damn right about that, Lucky Landry.
>>Landry: Want to know a secret?
>>Jamie: Of course I do.
>>Landry: I didn’t get any sleep at all after you left, actually. Not a wink.
>>Jamie: Bullshit.
>>Landry: Yep. This morning was painful.
>>Jamie: No wonder you needed more coffee… and I thought I had a rough one this morning.
>>Landry: You looked great too, by the way. No surprise there.
>>Jamie: You trying to be nice so I’ll bring you more coffee?
>>Landry: Nah, I just enjoy your presence. The coffee is a bonus.
I realized I was smiling to myself like a lunatic as I walked down the cobblestone sidewalk, shopping bags swinging on my wrist.
I liked that I could joke around with Landry. And after feeling like I’d made some sort of fool of myself coming onto him last night, it was a relief to see he was as casual as ever. Just Landry Lucock being himself, I supposed.
>>Jamie: Thank you, though. There. I know how to take a compliment… sometimes.
>>Landry: You should come out for dinner and drinks with me and my colleagues tonight. They know how to have fun, and everyone else will be busy at the rehearsal dinner.
I paused for a moment, surprised at the invitation.
>>Jamie: So you don’t want to run for the hills, far away from me after last night, huh?
I bit the inside of my cheek, watching for the three little dots that would mean he was responding. After a few minutes I realized he may have gotten busy with work again, so I started down the street, just in time for my phone to buzz with a call.
“Shit, a phone call,” I told him, a light breeze blowing my scarf around as I spoke. “I must really be in trouble.”
He hummed, his rich, velvety voice sexy even over the phone. “Only the good kind of trouble, and only if you want to be.”
“If you’re trying to get me to stop coming onto you, you’re doing a bad job when you say things like that.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “Listen, we just broke for an early lunch, so I wanted to call. You don’t actually think I’d want to stop speaking to you after last night, do you?”
I turned a corner and saw a sweeping view of the snowy mountains, all backdrop to a quaint, cobblestoned street. I paused there, leaning against a stone wall and kicking at a pebble with my boot.
“I thought it was a possibility.”
“Jamie,” he said, his voice dropping a few decibels in a way that made me want to melt right into the ground. “Last night was the most fun I’ve had in… weeks? Months?”
I swallowed. “I had fun, too.”
“It’s good to have a new friend. I don’t have enough of them.”
“Right,” I said.
And then suddenly there was a big, fat deflating feeling in my chest.
A new friend, he’d said.
A reminder that he didn’t want anything more—with anyone at all. He didn’t want a boyfriend.
You already knew this, Jamie.
I’d gotten a taste of what it was like to have Landry holding me close. Kissing me, fucking possessively, like he meant every last moment of it.
The image of that version of Landry was now emblazoned on my heart.
Our frozen moments. Our snowglobe.
“So,” he said, “want to come to dinner with me and my colleagues tonight?”
8
LANDRY
Only one thought was pounding through my head.
I fucking want you.
My eyes were on Jamie as the clink of tiny glasses filled the air. I watched him toss back another round of cherry liqueur as I took my shot, too, feeling less and less in control of my desires as the night went on. We were just one of many groups packed into the small, dimly lit restaurant and bar, crowded into a rounded corner booth.
Well, there were two thoughts, at the very least.
I fucking want you and I’m really not allowed to have you.
Weddings did bad, bad things to me.
“You all know how to drink,” I told my colleagues, trying to peel my eyes away from Jamie before I did something stupid.
I was keeping pace with everyone’s drinking, but it was getting harder and harder.
It had been a long, long day of meetings, phone calls, and conferences, after sleeping zero the night before. Somewhere around the afternoon, my total lack of sleep had really started to catch up with me, and I was struggling to keep my exhaustion hidden.
“I agree. You know how to drink too well,” Jamie said.
“The same goes for you, Jamie,” I told him. “You’re a beast tonight.”
“Hey, it’s a wedding week and a vacation for me,” Jamie said. “I’m allowed to have a little fun.”
“You’re allowed to have as much fun as you’d like,” Elyna said, her blonde, slick ponytail glinting under the light. I’d been on many conference calls with Elyna in the past, discussing multiple marketing strategies for small companies, but it turned out she was even better in person. She was originally from France, whip-smart, and knew how to have a good time, too.