Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
That and bearded, mysterious, blue-eyed black-clad strangers with ancient-sounding names, apparently.
“If you agree to go, I’ll whisk you away immediately after on the most romantic date you could possibly imagine.”
Kimmy frowns. “Really? And what kind of romance do you think would suit a person like me? A woman you don’t even know? What’s your idea of a good evening, most noble Hadrian? You don’t even know my name, and you’re already presuming that you know what kind of world I’d like offered at my feet?”
Oh, shit. Good gravy, here we go. The sword/tongue lashing is about to happen, and this guy’s head is going to metaphorically go rolling all over the place. Even metaphorically, I like my cheesecake with a little less blood and gore.
Hadrian just grins. He’s totally got Kimmy’s number. I mentally applaud him for being unafraid of her. Kimmy deserves someone who could make her heart leap and sing and dance. Someone who understands her the way I do. She might have tough skin, a whip-smart brain, a cutting wit, and more business sense than half this city put together, but underneath all that, I know she’s tender and soft and is just waiting for the right person to come along and appreciate her instead of always trying to snuff out her light because they’re intimidated by her spirit.
“What date could I possibly imagine after you have a heart-rending, serious conversation with your family?” he asks, as if in clarification. I can feel myself tensing. Kimmy isn’t one to be wined and dined. I really hope he doesn’t start going on about rose petals and candles. “A ride on the back of my bike, free with the wind rushing all around. After that, stand-up comedy at some dank little club where the jokes get gutter real fast. Then two shots of whisky and a plate of pizza nachos, followed by another bike ride to some secret place where the stars are fantastic and slow seduction is at its best. We’ll get cheesecake to go, of course. Hard words are better swallowed down with some sugar. Even if they’re good words, cheesecake alone is just worth getting for itself because it’s the most delicious invention in history.”
Oh. My. Gravy. Kimmy is speechless.
Kimmy is usually the one who can silence a whole auditorium of people, someone who could inspire a whole company. She’s got this gift for public speaking that I don’t have. I know she’s afraid of very few things. Very, very few. She pretty much radiates calm and control and powerful authority. That’s why guys usually run in the other direction. But right now? She’s silent. Amazed. She looks like she’s sixteen again, happy and with nothing to prove to anyone because she doesn’t know her brother is leaving yet. She doesn’t know how unhappy he is or how fractured her family is behind the façade. She has no idea that she’s going to have to spend the next decade of her life working her butt off to prove herself to her dad and then taking over his company and clawing her way to the top. She’s going to come into her own, and it’s going to look good on her, that mantle of strong woman, but right now, she’s just girlish and young again, and it’s beautiful.
She quickly recovers because Kimmy is Kimmy, and no one is going to get her at a loss or stump her for long. “So if I go to this hypothetical dinner and cut Remi and my brother some slack, you’ll take me on that date?”
“Would you like me to?”
Unbelievable. Hadrian is giving her a choice. She put the power back in his hands, and he’s thrusting it right back at her with a smile as if he doesn’t mind at all. What does this guy do? Where did he come from? It’s like he dropped out of the sky, perfectly made and formed just for Kimmy. How on earth is he single?
I’m so sure Kimmy is going to say no, and she’s going to slap down a few twenties, pay for the guy’s dessert, and walk out. She’s going to put her armor back on and be the Kimmy I know, the one who charges through life. She’s going to tell me that I can date her brother, but she’s going to be mad about it for a long time. Our friendship will survive, but she’ll be kind of sulky and surly for a good long while, and I’ll have to bribe her for months to come with the things she likes. I’m afraid her smiles will no longer be real, she’ll always be looking after her shoulder, and she won’t ever give Van a chance. That would hurt him so, so much, and watching that would break my heart.
Amazingly enough, Kimmy raises her eyes, and she’s got this wistful, soft smile going on that I have never seen before. “Yes,” she says, and that word is so self-contained, but it’s also not contained at all either. She pulls out her phone. “Let me have your number, and I’ll call you when I need that date.”