Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 618(@200wpm)___ 494(@250wpm)___ 412(@300wpm)
“No, you won’t.” He pushes the iPad off to the side. “Come inside. Say hi to my friends.”
“Trevor, they don’t like me.” I swallow the hurt swelling in my throat. “Henri doesn’t like me, and I can’t promise that my inner bitch won’t show her ugly face if that woman pushes me too far.”
“Does she have doubts?” Trevor leans his arms above his head against the car, looking back at me unwaveringly, honestly. “Yes.”
I drop my eyes and reach for the iPad again.
He leans in and tosses the device to the floor mat, grabs my hand, and gently tugs until I’m standing sandwiched between his big body and the car.
“Do I give a damn?” He presses his forehead to mine, breath on my lips. “Nope.”
“Bishop, I don’t want to come between you and your friends.”
“Then let’s hope Hen doesn’t make me choose.” He clasps my waist, fingers splayed over my back. “Because she would get the very short end of that stick.”
Even though I don’t want to cause strife between Trevor and one of his closest friends, hearing that he would choose me is a feather floating in my chest. I’d choose him over so many things that have been important to me in the past. I can’t help but remember Kerris’s impassioned speech about putting the person you love before yourself because you know they’re doing the same. I realize for the first time that I’d choose Trevor over myself, and that scares the living crap out of me. This is as close to selflessness as I’ve ever come, and there’s only one thing I can blame it on.
I’m in fucking love with Trevor Bishop.
Only I would have this epiphany on a busy Brooklyn street.
“You okay?” Trevor studies me closely. “Let’s get this over with so we can go back to your place.”
“Um, yeah.” I paint a fake smile on my face, feeling it dry and tighten at the edges. “Sure.”
I follow Trevor upstairs to his bedroom, and can’t help but remember the last time we were in this room. I lie down on his bed, the divan cool at my back, stretching my arms over my head. Oh, if this bed could talk it would moan. My eyes drift to where Trevor flicks through a stack of papers on the desk in the corner, his powerful shoulders hunched, concentration wrinkling his expression into a frown. Even his frowns turn me on. The man fucks like a matador. Or maybe he fucks like a bull, and I’m his matador, waving myself like a red flag every chance I get. Provoking him to lust and want and…
I can’t fill in that blank. I had an epiphany on the street. Doesn’t mean Trevor did. I know he cares about me. But love? That’s huge. That’s something I’ve never considered. I had the artificial version with Walsh, basically an overgrown puppy love I should have shaken when he didn’t take me to the prom. But this? This is all grown up, all consuming, forget-what-you-thought-you-knew-about-love love.
It’s a secret I want to lock in my heart under a trap door covered by a thick rug. If there’s one thing Daddy taught me, it’s that love is a luxury people like me can’t afford. People with enemies. People with dark pasts. People with secrets. Love becomes a weapon, and I’m in the fight of my life right now. I won’t have anyone using Trevor against me.
“Hey, I think what I need is downstairs in the office.” Trevor makes his way over to the bed, running his eyes over my body, lingering on my legs where my skirt pulls up. He runs his finger from my knee up and over the sensitive skin inside my thigh. He dips until his lips hover over mine.
“You laid out on my bed like this,” he says, eyes wicked. “Is that an invitation?”
I bend my knee so that his finger slides higher, closer to the heat centered between my legs.
“Do you accept?”
He chuckles and taps my nose.
“You will not distract me.” He drops a quick kiss on my lips before straightening. “At least not here. Now when we get back to your place, you’re all mine.”
“Hmmmmm.” I flick my eyes up to the ceiling and then back to his smiling face. “You keep saying that.”
“I keep meaning it.” He gives me a wink before leaving the room.
I relish the quiet that takes over the room, leaving space for me to hug my discovery close. I love Trevor Bishop. Who woulda thunk it?
Approaching footsteps bring a smile to my face. I bend my knee higher, sliding the other leg to the side so he’ll see my pink silk panties as soon as he walks through that door.
“Changed your mind?” I lift up on my elbow, my sexy grin petrifying on my face when my eyes meet Henrietta’s. I drop my knee hastily, sitting up and pulling down my skirt. “Oh, Henri. Sorry. I thought you were—”