Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 106150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Sometime? There wouldn’t be other times when Bash and I would be together trading stories, unless he actually made that trip to Linden someday. But I wasn’t gonna say that and ruin the mood.
“Ew,” I said with a shudder that made him laugh out loud.
Bash’s laughter was the best sound in the world, and I reveled in it. Another memory from my fairy-tale weekend.
“Now I’m going to have nightmares,” I informed him. “I think you need to clean my brain with a better story.”
Bash gathered me in his arms and pulled me close until my head rested on his chest. His skin smelled familiar to me now, which made me feel relaxed and safe.
“How about I tell you about the time I went to Antarctica?”
“No leeches?”
“Not unless you count a certain minor Danish noble who tried sneaking into my tent to cuddle me for warmth.”
I chuckled and burrowed further into his chest, and with his voice a warm rumble in my ear, I slipped into a delicious, deep sleep.
Which was why, when a phone’s ringtone split the midnight silence in the room a few hours later, I had no idea where the hell I was or whose hairy chest I was lying on.
TWELVE
BASH
Rowe had fallen asleep quickly, snoring lightly on my chest while I held him and ran my fingertips over his back and shoulders. Instead of feeling the deep, sated relaxation I would have expected to feel after a night of incredible casual sex, I felt restless and edgy…
Because this sex hadn’t been casual.
Rowe Prince was casual like a lightning strike.
Like a supernova.
Like free fall, in that heart-stopping moment before the parachute opens.
I couldn’t imagine how I was supposed to wish him well after this weekend, leave him with a few contacts for his project, and let him slip back off to Noplace, Indiana, without me.
The way he talked, the way he laughed, the way he saw the world, the way he let himself be trusting and vulnerable with me… all of it was electrifying and addictive. More thrilling than a hundred adventures to far-flung places because Rowe was endlessly unpredictable. Every part of him, right down to the freckles on his cheeks, was fascinating.
Which was a real problem because casual was all we could ever be.
I had no interest in an actual relationship. This wasn’t because I’d sworn them off after some terrible breakup, like Silas had, or because I was busy fucking my way through all fifty states like Landry. It was because I was already in a relationship with Sterling Chase—the company, not the adorable liar—and I liked it that way.
And even if I didn’t? Even if I was prepared to somehow make room in my life for a—my brain caught on the word—a boyfriend? How could I do that in good conscience when I would have to hide so much from him about my role at Sterling Chase, about my brotherhood and our money and our secrecy pact? I’d end up telling more lies than Rowe in his bunny tux… only worse, because I’d be lying to someone I cared about.
There was also the tiny matter of Rowe having family obligations calling him back to Linden, where the only thing that interested me was a certain Cupid picture hanging on his mother’s living room wall.
The last thing I wanted to do was lead Rowe on or hurt him in any way, which meant I had to end this immediately. But—my arm tightened around Rowe’s shoulders, and he nestled closer with a sleepy sigh—I didn’t know how.
The mind-numbing circular thoughts finally lulled me into an uneasy sleep, and when the phone rang sometime later, I was groggy and disoriented.
“Bash?” Rowe mumbled into my chest. “Wha—?”
I grabbed my phone from the nightstand. “Shh. It’s Kenji, my assistant. Go back to sleep, sweetheart.”
It was just after two in the morning, not a time for social calls, and panic slithered through my mind as I remembered a different phone call several years ago, when Dev’s brother had died in a terrible car crash. Nudging Rowe’s warm body off mine as I slid out of bed left me feeling even more uneasy and wrong-footed.
“Kenji?” I croaked into the phone. “Who’s hurt? What’s wrong?”
“Everyone’s safe,” Kenji said immediately. Under his breath, he added a menacing, “Until I get a hold of them, at least. Fucking Landry, Bash. I swear to Christ.”
I ran a hand over my face, trying to shake off the remnants of sleep. “What’d he do? Does he need bribe money or bail money?”
“The second. This time for property damage and public intoxication.” Kenji’s voice was nearly vibrating with anger.
I sighed. I had no idea why Landry pulled the stunts he pulled or why he almost seemed to enjoy being a thorn in Kenji’s side. “Okay—” I began.
“No. No, it is definitely not okay, Bash. Because this time, he took our favorite rock star along for the ride. And of course he waited until I was already in Florida for my grandmother’s birthday so I can’t even make this go away before the media gets a hold of it.”