Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 89674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 448(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
“You’re being quiet,” Dash said while entering the code to unlock the front door.
When I didn’t respond quickly enough, he cast a questioning glance over his shoulder. My gaze was instantly drawn to him, and it was still overwhelming for me. He had always been a handsome guy, but with age and a well-tailored suit, Dash looked genuinely GQ-ready.
“I tend to be the quiet one,” I reminded him.
“Not usually with me.” He fixed his gaze on me, using his butt to hold open the door to allow me to get ahead of him. Once inside, he tossed his key fob on the entry table. A habit he’d had since we moved here. He tightened his grip around my hand. “You’ve been preoccupied all evening.”
“I understand that you find a way to make it work a certain way, but it bugs me to have Carter mentioned so much around me. I don’t like him. I feel like my mom made a bad decision in marrying him,” I said, releasing Dash’s hand to shrug off my suit coat. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wear a tie today. They were so annoying and dumb to wear.
The quiet in the house always made it feel cold. The game that I left out in the living room was picked up, no sign that it was ever there. Apparently we had housekeepers that I never saw, but miraculously kept the house uber clean.
As I trudged up the stairs for the bedroom, an instrumental piece started to play throughout the house. Sometimes, I turned on Dash’s playlist because it always reminded me of him. Once I realized he hadn’t followed me up, I searched him out. I found him still on the first floor, moving toward the staircase at a snail’s pace as he removed his clothes. My steps up became slower as I watched his suit coat be draped over his arm. His knotted tie hung loose as he worked his cufflinks free. I don’t know why I found that such a sexy move, but I did. My cock plumped, growing firm on my final step up.
“Beau, baby, Carter admires your determination to be a self-sufficient man, and he deeply loves his family, which includes you,” Dash explained, oblivious to all the sexy time pheromones I was throwing down.
“I wish you’d use my income to help pay our bills. I liked it better when we combined our paychecks,” I said, bringing up a topic sure to divert Dash from any more talk of Carter.
“I keep forgetting to tell you that the Dallas house is ours. We won,” Dash said in his own diversionary countermove, finally making it to the top step with me. We were now eye to eye, Dash’s smile spreading.
“Congratulations,” I said, falling in step with him as we moved toward the bedroom.
“Joy reached out to me. My father had a meltdown with the news and fired his lead council.”
“I bet,” I said. Whether Dash showed it or not, he was joyful about beating his father. I was too. “And you haven’t heard from your mom or any other family?”
“No. Thankfully.” We were in a lifestyle reminiscent of an old married couple. Instead of tugging off each other’s clothing to throw down in bed, I headed for the closet, and he followed. The overhead lights flipped on as we entered. “I saw Scott’s YouTube channel. I was surprised he posted both his and your shared videos. Has he noticed that you beat him every time? It’s funny. The comments bust on Scott.”
“He’s got baby brain,” I said, letting that be enough to explain where Scott’s head was anymore. I toed off my shoes and worked the buttons from the front of my dress shirt.
“With three children in four years, I bet he’s always going to have baby brain,” Dash said. We shared a look that meant no truer words had ever been spoken, then continued to undress.
“We’re godparents to four energetic young girls. I’m not gonna lie, they’re pretty special,” I said. By mentioning my tiny baby sister Kailey, one of the four young girls in our lives, caused me to worry. I wasn’t sure almost five years was enough time to truly vet Carter as a stable guy. What if there was a hidden alcohol problem, or something more devastating that put my mom and baby sister in a bad way?
I headed off to brush my teeth, and Dash trailed behind me. “I’ve been thinking about the Dallas property. What’re your feelings about putting it up for sale and having Amelia relocate here with us?”
“Oh joy. A light, witty conversation,” I said. The next few minutes were quiet, I didn’t like talking while brushing my teeth. When I was done, I reached for a hand towel and continued, “Has something happened? You playing hero again?”