Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
If I could not be instantly turned on by his hand touching the bare skin on my waist, then I wouldn’t have a problem at all. How did I explain that to him? I would sound like a desperate female who craved any man’s attention that was thrown at her. Which could not be further from the truth.
“I let myself think too much sometimes,” I said. There, that was the truth.
“Is it about today? Us? Is that bothering you?”
When I said nothing, his hand tightened on me, and he leaned closer. “After Cullen goes to bed,” he said, then let me go and went over to take a seat on the sofa.
He was going to stay after Cullen went to bed? This was probably a bad thing. I had no control. I needed to be a little harder to get. It was why Saint wanted me. Men liked that. Men didn’t stay when a woman was too needy. I had seen it happen to my gorgeous sister over and over.
Cullen sat between us on the sofa, and I was thankful for that. I needed him there. I wished he could stay there all night. He was a great buffer. But one hour into the movie, and his head fell over on my lap. He was done. That meant it was time for me to face Rio and not turn him off by my need for him.
Rio picked Cullen up and carried him to his room. I tucked him in and looked at the sound machine that I never turned on at night. It was simply to help drown out noise during his daytime naps. Turning it on now would mean I didn’t trust myself not to do more with Rio tonight. Leaving it off would mean I was sending him home.
“Turn on the sound machine,” Rio said in my ear.
I shook my head. “He doesn’t need it at night.”
“He will now,” Rio said.
I ignored that and walked out. I heard the sound machine come on just as I stepped into the hallway and turned to see Rio following me with a determined look on his face.
I closed the door to Cullen’s room and then looked at Rio. “I’m tired,” I told him.
“You took a nap,” he said, closing in on me until my back hit the wall. “Tell me what happened in your head. Because something is bothering you.”
“Can we go to the living room?” I asked, then pointed at Cullen’s door.
Rio nodded and stepped back, letting me go first, and then he followed. When we were in the living room again, Rio walked over to the sofa and sat down. I did the same, but I put distance between us.
“Talk,” he said.
Fine, I would explain most of it. The parts he needed to understand.
“You’ve never shown interest in me until this morning. Then, you suddenly found me attractive, and by early afternoon, I threw myself at you willingly. That isn’t me. I don’t do that.”
Rio said nothing for a few moments, and I wondered if he was waiting on me to say more.
“I’ve been attracted to you since I was fourteen years old,” he said finally.
“What?” I asked, not sure I’d heard him correctly.
“Bryn, the moment I saw you, I chased you down and made you talk to me. That was because I was sure I’d just seen the prettiest girl alive.”
I frowned. “Really?”
“Why would I lie about that?” he asked with a grin.
“Well, that was when we were kids. Before the Jeep thing, you weren’t interested in me. In fact, I saw you with several different girls those two weeks I worked at the farmers market.”
He sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You reminded me of my past and a time in my life I didn’t want to remember. You were the only bright thing in my world back then. But you were still a part of my fucked up childhood.”
“Why now? Why did you change your mind today?” I asked, not sure I really understood his reasoning.
“When I thought you’d bashed my Jeep, I could stay away from you because I thought your childhood had changed you. But once I didn’t have that and after watching you with Cullen and seeing the girl I’d once cared for was still there, that you hadn’t been hardened and twisted by life, I couldn’t get you out of my head. I won’t lie. I tried real damn hard.”
Maybe that did make sense. It didn’t make me feel better about the fact that I had been so easy for him. That was embarrassing.
“Come here,” he said.
He held out his hand to me, and I looked at it. If I went to him, I would end up doing whatever he wanted. I’d beg him for it. I didn’t move.