Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
I want to push him to talk to me, to understand where all of the hate comes from, but I sense this isn’t the time. “I have to shower at home with all my products. Maybe you can walk me there?”
“We’ll go get your things and come back here.”
“Reid—”
He kisses me again. “Let’s go get your things.” There is a hard push in his words that I could read as a demand, but I don’t.
I pull back and study him, and I’m right. It’s not demand. It’s more need. For me. This powerful man that I know could teach me so much, show me so much, needs me. At least for now. I don’t know when that ends or how it ends or if that’s with hate, but there is more to Reid Maxwell than meets the eye. And right now, I need him, too.
“Yes,” I say. “Let’s go get my things.”
He smiles. This man of stone smiles. And so, I smile, too.
Reid throws on sweats and I knot his T-shirt over my skirt, and we walk to my apartment, with his arm around my shoulders. We enter my apartment and I motion to my windows. “It’s not an ocean view, but the windows are cute and perfect.” I glance over at him. “I love them.”
“They, and this place,” he says, scanning our surroundings, “are very you.”
I laugh at the play on my own words about his place and step in front of him. “I’ll bite. What does that mean?”
“It’s unique, feminine, and powerful.”
“Just not as powerful as you, but I’m okay with that.” I press my hand to his chest. “Knowledge is sexy and so is power and even money, but don’t worry, I don’t want yours. I want to make my own.”
His hands close down on my arms and he pulls me to him. “And you will. You already are.” He kisses me. “Go get your things. I still need to have coffee and you before we leave for work.”
“You already had me.”
“And it never seems to be enough.” He turns me and smacks my ass. “Go.”
Heat rushes over me with that smack, memories of me across his lap flooding my mind and body as he intends, I’m certain. I don’t give him the satisfaction of knowing it worked. I hurry forward and up my black steel winding stairs, which I also adore. I love this place. I don’t want to lose it. Maybe I don’t have to lose it. I might not be as cold as Reid, but he said he could teach me ways around that. Maybe he can. I refuse to believe destroying others is the only way to succeed and it’s a testament to my state of mind that I allowed myself to slip into that point of view.
Feeling more positive than I have in a month, I enter my bedroom and make my way through the bathroom to the walk-in closet in the back, a luxury in this city. I pull out a pale blue suit dress that travels well and hang it to the side before grabbing my overnight case and setting it on the stool in the center of the room. I’m just filling it with heels, hose, and lingerie, including a red silk slip gown, when I hear, “Pack for the weekend.”
At the sound of Reid’s voice, I glance up to find him leaning on the doorframe, his blond hair a sexy, rumpled mess. “Weekend?”
“I’m trying to fuck you out of my system, remember? How can I do that if you aren’t with me?” He delivers that statement in a deadpan voice, but I know he’s joking.
“Maybe an extra night is all it will take for me,” I say, going along with him. “I’m not committing to more.”
He’s around the stool in a heartbeat, dragging me to him. “You think you can get rid of me that easily?”
“We’ll find out soon, now won’t we?”
He kisses me, a deep drugging kiss that makes my sex clench. “We already know it’s not that easy, for either of us. Pack for the weekend. That’s an order.”
“And outside of work, I should take your orders why?”
He kisses me again and this time his hand cups my backside and he pulls me hard against him, the thick length of his erection pressing to my belly. “Pack for the weekend, baby,” he says, his voice low, rough, affected.
The “baby” wins me over, that and knowing he doesn’t invite women to his apartment for a night, let alone a weekend. “I’ll pack for the weekend.”
Chapter twenty-nine
Carrie
Ichange into sweats and Reid and I drop my stuff off at his apartment with time to spare, which we don’t spend naked. We walk to the coffee shop and back again. “How many days a week do you run?” he asks.
“Every workday,” I say, “and I go to the gym in my building three days a week. What about you?”