Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“Uh.” My mind was working furiously to do two things at once. I was staring at the pictures but also trying to focus on what she said. “No, I’m not sure. I think we’re leaving tomorrow.”
“That’s great. We’ll come for dinner so you guys can talk about your trip.”
“That sounds good.”
“Alright, I’ll let you go,” she said. “Talk to you later.”
“Bye, Pearl.”
“Bye.”
I hung up and set his phone down. The second it touched the table, a message lit up on the screen.
It was from Vanessa. You killed it last night, brother. So proud of you. There were three heart emojis behind her words.
My eyes softened, loving the way Vanessa was affectionate with her brother. They bickered and argued a lot, but it was obvious they were loyal to each other.
I turned back to the screen and stared at the photographs of us together. My heart was beating so fast it actually hurt my chest. His mother believed we were in love, and when I stared at these pictures, it was difficult to believe otherwise.
We did look happy together.
I’d been so focused on my conversation with Pearl and the article that I hadn’t noticed the shower was off. His footsteps sounded, and his voice emerged before he came around the corner. “What did my mother want?”
Frantically, I closed out of the article and put the laptop back where I found it. I jumped back into the seat and almost knocked over my cup of coffee. I caught it just as he rounded the corner, a towel around his waist.
He watched me with narrowed eyes. “Didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“You didn’t.” I cleared my throat and tried to act natural. “I dropped my fork and knocked over my mug when I tried to pick it up…really stupid.”
He kept staring at me, his gaze hard. But since that was the expression he usually wore, it was difficult to tell what he was thinking. He turned his gaze to his laptop and stared at it for several heartbeats.
Shit.
Then he moved to the seat across from me like nothing happened.
Fuck, did I not put it back exactly how it was? I hadn’t been paying attention when I grabbed it.
He picked up the newspaper then poured the coffee into his mug.
Nothing seemed off.
But my heart was still pounding.
He drank his coffee then stared at me hard, his eyes narrowed. “Well?”
I grabbed my mug but didn’t take a drink. My fingers wrapped around it, squeezing it hard enough that it could shatter. I forced myself to relax, to stop acting so guilty. I’d used his computer to look up something. That didn’t make me evil. I guess I was just scared of what I saw. What would he think if he saw it? Would it annoy him? “Well…what?”
He took a long drink of his coffee as he stared at me. “What did my mother say?”
“Ohh…” I finally set down the mug and took a deep breath in relief.
He cocked an eyebrow. “And what did she say?” he pressed.
“She just wanted to congratulate you on your show last night. She said it was a hit, and she’s very proud of you.” I placed his cell phone in front of him, so he could see Vanessa’s message. “She said you can call her back if you want, but you don’t need to.” I omitted all the other stuff she said, about him being madly in love with me.
Like the conversation never happened at all, he turned his gaze to the paper and ate quietly. He was still in just his towel, his damp hair slowly drying from the sunlight that filtered through the window. The hard lines of his body were more dramatic because the sun was causing shadows on his chiseled physique.
Last night, he made love to me before bed. He kissed me, took me gently, and stared into my eyes like he never wanted to stop. And now, he enjoyed the comfortable silence between us while reading his newspaper.
We seemed like a couple.
A man and a woman.
Maybe his mother was right. A picture was worth a thousand words.
And our pictures all said the same thousand words.
7
Conway
I went into the office and sat behind the desk while I spoke to Nicole. Muse was in the shower, and as much as she entertained me, I had to focus on my job. She distracted me so easily, but I had to be strong and stop that from happening so much.
“Enormous spike in sales, Conway. Just like last time, everything has sold out. Preorders are backing up, which brings me to the first issue at hand.”
“I hate that word.”
“Well, I’m not going to stop using it.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Your one distributor can’t reach demand anymore. We need to take on a second.”
Androssi. Dammit. I told him off, but now I might need him.