Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
The thank-you gift just got a little more expensive. I hadn’t even realized they would make the place so nice for us.
Jake walked over to the window, hands in his pockets as he took in the view. I came up behind him, wrapping an arm around his waist and resting my head on his shoulder. Even though we were an hour and a half away from home, it felt like we had never left. Home for me was no longer a singular roof over my head but instead the heart that beat next to me, Jake‘s solid presence making me feel safe and comfortable.
“This is beautiful.”
I looked up into Jake’s glittering eyes. “It really is.”
He caught my smile, pressing his lips against mine, the smile spreading.
“Are you ready to host the club tonight?” I asked, my hand sliding under his shirt and rubbing on his lower back, fingers tracing the two columns of muscle that created a small dip leading down to his butt.
“I am,” he said, kissing me again. “I’ve got my talking points ready, questions written down, and drinking game set.”
“Awesome.” I kissed him again, the temperature in the room slowly rising. But before we got too carried away, I wanted to give Jake a gift I’d been holding on to for a couple of weeks. Now finally felt like the right time to give it to him. I slipped away from his grip and went over to my backpack, unzipping it and taking out a long, wrapped rectangular item. Jake watched me with suspicion creeping into his gaze, brows inching closer and closer together.
“Okay, so I ordered this a few weeks ago, but that’s when I got the text and everything went to shit, sooo I held off on giving it to you. But I’ve got a really good feeling about this weekend and think it’s the perfect time.” I held it out, Jake grabbing it in both hands, the navy blue wrapping paper crinkling in his hands.
“A gift for what?”
“For being so amazing,” I said. “My love language is gifts. Just take it.”
Jake chuckled, starting to open it from one of the corners. “You really didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I know, but I wanted to.”
His toothy grin was contagious. He stopped being delicate with the wrapping paper and tore off a shred of it, the rest falling down to the floor. He looked at the blank board of wood he held in his hands, slightly confused.
“Turn it around,” I said, holding my breath for his reaction.
He turned it around, and his eyes went wide, instantly recognizing us etched into the wood. We were smiling in the photo, the flowers from the botanical gardens behind us and also etched into the wood with incredible detail, some of them even colored in to add an extra layer of depth. There were vines underneath the photo that grew together to spell out the date we had become official.
I heard sniffling and was surprised to see Jake wiping away a tear, overcome by the surprise. I rubbed the spot between his shoulders, and he started to tear up even more.
“This is beautiful, Noah.”
“I wanted something we could have forever. That’s the first photo we took together, and that’s the date we became boyfriends.”
“It’s—I love it. So much.”
He gave me another kiss, this one nearly knocking me over onto the bed. When we separated, I could see the tears welling up so much that more spilled over, one of them falling down onto the wood and darkening it. My own heart swelled with emotion. I hadn’t expected this kind of reaction from Jake, who was normally much more stoic and less prone to crying than I was. It melted me. Made me fall even harder for this man, something I thought shouldn’t have been impossible. I never wanted to let him go, no matter what was happening outside of our perfect little bubble.
He set the etched wood gently on the dresser and turned, kissing me again, and again and again, until we fell back onto the bed laughing into each other’s mouths, hands roaming and my shorts unzipping. “How much time do you think we have before everyone gets suspicious?” Jake asked, already kissing his way down my belly.
“About ten minutes, give or take.”
“Should be enough time to show how thankful I am for you,” he said, rubbing his face on my shorts before pulling them off with his teeth, smiling up at me the entire time.
Pfft. With how sexy Jake was, I figured we’d only need five minutes for him to show me how grateful he was.
And I was right.
24
JAKE PEREZ
The cabin was like a labyrinth. There were five bedrooms with huge bathrooms and two kitchens. There was one living room at the front of the cabin and another toward the back, along with a neon-bright arcade in the basement and a couple of pool tables. There was a hot tub on the wraparound deck and another lounge area full of comfortable pillows and an outdoor couch that was more comfortable than the one I had in my house. Next to one of the bedrooms was a wall-to-wall library full of all different kinds of books, with an arching window that was flanked by two maroon armchairs.