Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 36987 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 185(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36987 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 185(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
“Knock it off,” I groused at him, taking another bite of the best burger I’d ever had in my whole life. “Don’t be a wiseass.”
“Me?”
“Like you haven’t been hinting about this for over a year.”
“I believe it was a week after we met when I basically came out and said that you should get rid of that hellhole you call an abode,” he said dramatically. “You never sleep there, none of your clothes are there, but we both know why you couldn’t let go of it.”
I scowled at him.
“And no, this is not me psychoanalyzing you, but come the fuck on.”
“Don’t swear in your sister’s house,” I scolded him.
His laugh was so good, warm and husky, and I smiled even though I didn’t want to.
“It’s your parachute in case I decide to throw you out of my life and my house, but we both know I would never do that because I’m madly in love with you.”
I couldn’t control my grin. “Madly?”
“I would smack you, but I have no idea what patch of skin on your body is unbruised or not covered in stitches at the moment.”
“Listen, you—oh no. Don’t get upset.”
But it was too late. That fast, his eyes filled, he started to shake, and I put down my burger, wiped my hands, and grabbed him. He gasped as I hugged him tight, crushing him against me, and then he started to cry. “I’m okay, honey. You can see I am.”
He pressed his face down into my shoulder as he shuddered.
“I had everything under control.”
That got a gulp and a trace of a chuckle before there was more crying.
I put my hand in his hair and held on.
“You could have died.”
“No.”
“When you came through the—I knew you were outside, but I didn’t know if you got shot by whoever was in the car, and I was scared that the boys were going to be killed or Sin or Brad, and I wanted to follow you when I got out of the car, but I was afraid I would get in your way, and then we went inside and those guys were there with guns, and I…I didn’t know what to do. I was helpless and—”
“It’s okay, you’re okay,” I said, rubbing circles on his back, still holding tight. He was rambling, and he needed to breathe.
“And then you were just there, in the living room, and—you could have died.”
He was shivering in my arms, and I kissed the side of his neck and chuckled.
“George!” he yelled but didn’t try and pull free.
“Listen, you can worry when I’m gone because you don’t know what I’m up against or whom I’m fighting and you don’t know their skill set. But when I’m here in front of you—I truly wasn’t worried that any of those guys could hurt me. I was only worried about the boys when I came into the house.”
He nodded into my shoulder. “They shot you.”
“The bullet grazed me, you know that, you saw. It didn’t even need stitches.”
“You never go to the hospital.”
“I go when it’s necessary, but nobody touched me, and I didn’t even hit my head this time. You were impressed, weren’t you?”
“I’m always impressed with you.”
“Yeah?”
He lifted his head and looked into my face. “I love you. I can’t help but be scared when people point guns at you.”
Taking his face in my hands, I eased him forward into a kiss that really was the best thing I’d had all day, even better than the burger. When he pulled back, he licked his lips.
“I’m thinking you don’t mind the grease or the onion rings.”
“No, I don’t,” he agreed, and kissed me again.
FOUR
I had gone to what was Kurt’s and my room, upstairs on the opposite end from the boys, which was good because I planned to have sex during our holidays, and Kurt was loud in the sack. He always sounded so affronted when I pointed that out but smiled shyly at the same time. The combination made the man utterly attackable.
I’d just finished showering and changing and was sitting on the end of the bed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie, putting my socks on, when there was a soft knock on the door.
“Yeah?”
Thomasin poked her head in and smiled.
“Hey, Thom. Are you still gonna have your party thing?”
She sighed deeply and shook her head. “No. I think my family has been through enough for one night, don’t you?”
“Possibly,” I said, grinning at her.
“May I?” she asked, pointing at the spot beside me on the bed.
“’Course.”
She closed the door and took a seat next to me. When I looked at her, she was biting her bottom lip.
“So,” I said, “I saw that the boards are up where the glass doors were. You got those guys out here fast.”
“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “But those doors, they don’t slide right, they sort of pivot to open, so it’s all custom work. They told me it’s certainly going to be after New Year’s before they can make the repairs, since they need large single pieces of beveled glass.”