Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
He kissed me again, that smug grin turning up the side of his mouth. Instead of annoying me, it raised the simmer to a low boil.
“So fucking cocky,” I whispered, and his grin bloomed into a full smile, brimming with arrogance and satisfaction.
“Yes. Yes, I am. And we are definitely going to do that again.”
Finn’s long fingers sank beneath my loose braid to cup the back of my head, pulling me close, and he kissed me, long and slow. He kissed me until my brain melted out of my ears like warm caramel, and all I could think about was slipping my hands under his shirt, feeling his warm skin, the shift of muscles beneath.
When he pulled his mouth from mine, I let out a whimper. Finn was the only man who’d ever made me whimper. In that moment, I didn’t even care.
“Not tonight,” he said. “You need your sleep, and if I get you naked again, nobody is going to be sleeping.” He dipped his head for one last slow kiss. “Not tonight,” he said again, “but soon.” He stepped back and was gone, leaving me wobbling on my feet yet again.
Not tonight, but soon.
How soon? And how was Finn Sawyer the responsible one in this . . . whatever it was? It wasn’t a relationship. He hadn’t said he wanted to take me to dinner. He said we were going to fuck again. I had no argument there. I didn’t want dinner. I didn’t want flowers. I didn’t want a relationship.
What I wanted was Finn. He’d said he’d been dreaming about fucking me for years. If I was being honest with myself, I’d been dreaming of the same thing. And like Finn, my dreams hadn’t come close to reality.
I didn’t want a relationship, but I did want Finn. And I was going to have him. Again and again. And when we were done, when this need burned itself out., we’d both walk away satisfied.
Even as I had the thought, I recognized that there was a decent chance this was going to end up biting me in the ass. Friends with benefits in the workplace never ended well.
My brain flashed to the kitchen counter in the cottage. The blinding pleasure, the feel of him inside me. The sound of his groan when he came.
This thing with Finn was going to blow up in my face, and I couldn’t bring myself to care.
Chapter Twenty-One
SAVANNAH
One of these days, I was going to come to my cottage without my arms overflowing with stuff, but not today. Today was moving day, the day I’d been waiting for since Griffen and Hope had mentioned updating the cottage and giving it to Nicky and me. Shifting the boxes in my arms and the two duffel bags hanging from my shoulder, I braced the biggest box against the door frame. Finally getting my hand on the knob, I turned it, shouldering the door open. I let the duffel bags slide off my shoulders, and they hit the ground with a thud beside the door. More carefully, I set the boxes on the floor beside them. That was the very last of our things.
It still blew my mind that the cottage was ours.
In the beginning, I hadn’t taken them seriously. I hadn’t known Griffen or Hope well enough at that point to believe they meant what they said, and I was still living with the echoes of growing up under Prentice’s reign, when the staff was treated like children—seen but not heard.
Making his housekeeper comfortable had never been one of Prentice’s considerations. He paid my mother well enough, and she’d had a roof over her head. To Prentice, that was more than enough. When I took the job with Griffen and Hope, I was excited about the challenge of running Heartstone Manor and relieved by the salary and good health insurance.
On top of that, I had a gut instinct that Griffen’s promises were good, that he would create a working environment that I could, at worst, tolerate, and, at best, grow to love. It pleased me immensely that I’d been right, but even in my wildest imaginings, I hadn’t hoped for this gorgeous little cottage. A home just for Nicky and me. It felt like a lifetime since we’d had our own place.
Arms finally empty, I set my hands on my hips and surveyed the main room of the cottage. Everything here was immaculate. I don’t know when they found the time, but Kitty and April must have given it a final pass. There was no evidence of drywall dust or leftover tools. The floors gleamed, the counters shone, and the air smelled faintly of lemons and rosemary. It was perfect.
What had been the housekeeper’s apartment in Heartstone Manor was now empty except for the furniture. When she was ready, Parker and I would decide how best to transform the apartment into a lounge for the staff and an office for me. But that was a problem for later. Today was moving day, and while it might be quiet for the moment, I knew it was about to get very busy.