Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Dammit. I knew I’d messed up that night at my apartment. “I didn’t friend-zone you. And I don’t want to have this conversation at the back of a bar. But I promise you, I’m not screwing around. Please. Leave with me, Hallie.”
She considered this and then slowly nodded her head.
Triumph and anticipation flushed through me.
I squeezed her hips and then forced myself to release her. “I’m going to put Darcy in a cab. Meet me outside when you’re ready.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Hallie
That’s cool. I think I’ll stay here, have another drink. You good?”
I gaped at Derek. Althea was right. He was awesome. “I’m g-good,” I answered nervously. “I just feel bad.”
“Don’t be. Sometimes guys need to see what they’re going to lose before they pull their heads out of their asses. Sorry we’re morons that way.”
I laughed, but I could hear how breathy it sounded. My nerves were shot to hell. I could still feel Chris’s hands on my hips even now. Possessive. Wanting.
The way he’d looked at me in the hallway . . .
Oh wow.
Definitely not friend-zoning me.
Derek had said as much as Chris walked away from the table and back to Darcy earlier.
“Okay, you do realize he wanted to scare me off, right?” Derek had laughed as soon as Chris was out of earshot.
Hope had been blossoming and deflating in me so much these last few weeks that I didn’t want to hope anymore. I’d waved off Derek’s assurance that Chris definitely had more than friendly thoughts about me and attempted to concentrate on our date and not on the fact that Chris was in the same room. Impossible, considering I was hyperaware of him.
And now this?
It felt like a surreal dream.
“Althea’s going to kill me.”
“She won’t.” Derek stood up from the table and leaned down to kiss my cheek. “Go get him.”
“Let me at least pay for my drinks and—”
He scowled at me. “Don’t even think about it.”
Damn, in another life, this guy . . . “I hope I’ll see you again.”
“I think Althea is close to adopting you, so I have no doubt we’ll see each other again.”
Impulsively, I hugged him. “Thanks, Derek.”
He chuckled and gave me a quick squeeze. “Go, woman. I don’t want to end up in a bar fight with a beloved national hero.”
Laughing, cheeks flushed at the thought of Chris being jealous over me, I left Derek to his evening and strode on shaky legs toward the exit. As I stepped out, I caught sight of Chris on the sidewalk. A cab pulled away from him and he turned.
Our eyes met, and it felt like every inch of me, every nerve zinged with life like I’d just been shocked by electricity.
He’d never looked at me with such raw desire before.
My knees shook.
Suddenly he crossed the distance between us and took my free hand without a word. His grip tightened, his thumb brushing across the top of my hand in reassurance. He felt right. His hand in mine.
In my heels, I was almost the same height as him, but he slowed his stride so I wouldn’t have to hurry at his side.
Assuming we were grabbing the subway back to his place, I was surprised when he hailed a cab. Well, I guess we were in a hurry.
Inside the cab, Chris sat close to me, my thigh pressed against his, his hand still in mine. Butterflies threw a rager in my belly. I hoped my palm didn’t feel sweaty. Drawing my gaze up his strong throat, from his sharp jaw to his mouth, I bit my lip to stop myself from reaching for him.
Never had a mouth tempted me as much as Chris Ortiz’s.
“Hallie,” he whispered my name on a groan, and I lifted my eyes to his.
I squeezed my legs closer together as he swallowed hard.
How long would this goddamn cab take?
“I want you to touch me,” I admitted in a whisper.
A muscle in Chris’s jaw flexed, and he released my hand, only to settle it on my knee. My skin tingled beneath his palm. “Soon,” he murmured as we watched his hand. He moved it, his fingertips caressing my inner thigh. I shivered, and I knew he felt it because his fingers flexed on my skin.
He didn’t move it any farther, but he continued to make circles on my inner thigh until I was so ready to combust, it wasn’t even funny. I let out a little moan and saw the cabdriver’s head snap up toward the rearview.
I caught his suspicious gaze and flushed furiously.
Chris chuckled, but he didn’t stop tormenting me.
I had never, in my entire life, felt the hazy, all-consuming control of my hormones. While I had a ton of questions for Chris, important ones I knew we should discuss before anything else happened, my priority was to get him naked.
“Oh, thank God,” I choked out when the cab eventually pulled up outside Chris’s Brooklyn apartment.