Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“Agreed,” she murmurs, and then smiles at me. “My life is complicated. I’m a single mom caring for a little girl, trying to help Jenna acclimate back into a cruel world and have a new job I’m trying to excel at. All very good reasons I shouldn’t have been moved to kiss you when you defended Jenna, and yet, I don’t regret it at all. In fact, I feel a bit invested.”
Reaching out, I take the bottle of beer from her, setting it down with mine on the coffee table. With my hands free, I tug her onto my lap so she’s straddling me.
It’s not sexual.
It’s so we can be close—face-to-face. My hands at her hips, I squeeze. “Guess what? I’m invested in you too.”
Emory’s hands go to my shoulders. She looks scared and I squeeze her hips again.
“Breathe,” I tell her playfully. “I swear I won’t complicate your life further.”
She doesn’t smile back, but frowns before her eyes cut away. I reach up, take her by the jaw and force her attention back to me. “What is it?”
“I um…”
Her words fall flat, and she looks away again.
“Emory,” I call softly to get her to look at me again. She does so, but it’s reluctantly. “Talk to me.”
She sighs, a painful exhale of breath. “I’m really not worried about you complicating my life. I know you won’t.”
“But…” I press.
“But,” she says upon an intake of air, “My last relationship—with Felicity’s dad—it was bad. It took me a long time to get out of it. And now that I’m free from him… from all of the misery he caused us… I’m just a little gun shy.”
“Hard for you to trust?” I guess. Like her sister, I’m betting. They’re just alike.
She nods guiltily. “It’s nothing against you. You’re great and I was moved to kiss you and I’m invested already. There’s no going back on that. But…”
“But you’re scared,” I surmise.
“I am,” she admits without hesitation.
I ponder that a moment, holding her gaze. It would be so easy for me to just let her go. Make it for her greater good and uncomplicate both of our lives. She doesn’t need this, and do I, really?
Instead, I find myself giving reassurances because I don’t want to let her go. “I know what we do.”
Emory tilts her head, that beautiful face awash with curiosity. “What’s that?”
“We go on like we were. We keep it easy. We take it day by day. We don’t have expectations other than having a good time together, being monogamous and we let this go where it goes. It may go nowhere. It may go the distance. It might settle somewhere in between. But I’m not ready to give up yet. Are you?”
She’s silent way too long, but my heart starts beating again when she smiles.
Hesitant at first, then brighter with a slight shake of her head. “No. I’m not ready to give up yet either.”
My smile breaks wide and with my hands now gripping onto her hips, I jerk her forward so she settles against the part of me that liked her first. It’s not the only part of me that likes her now, and maybe not even the greatest part at this point.
But now that talk is out of the way, and we have made a commitment of sorts to move this to a new level, I’d like to show her just how much I’m pleased by this turn of events.
“Let’s get you naked, okay?” My voice is husky, promising.
“Okay,” she whispers.
“Then I want to do things to you,” I murmur, my eyes holding hers. “With my mouth… between your legs.”
Emory lets out a tremulous breath and her eyelids flutter slightly.
“That okay with you?” I ask to make sure.
“Yeah,” she rasps with a nod of her head. “That’s okay with me.”
CHAPTER 14
Emory
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I mutter as I stir the spaghetti sauce and lift it to my lips to taste.
“You’re doing this,” Jenna says adamantly, taking the words not as an affirmation I’m actually doing this, but as a statement that I’d really like to cancel and not do this.
I invited Jett to eat dinner at my house.
I try to tell myself it’s no different than having him over for our Not-So-Thanksgiving Dinner but it’s different. That was a friend type of thing. Co-workers really.
But we’re carnal now, so this is different.
This is involved.
This is complicated.
“Why did I do this?” I ask her, a hint of panic in my voice. I cut her a glance and she rolls her eyes at me.
“You’re doing this because you like Jett and he likes you, and you’re dating.”
“We’re not—
“You’re dating,” she says knowingly. “And your time is limited. With his game schedule—half of which is on the road—and you being a mom with a demanding career, you have to try to spend time with each other when you can.