Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 774(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“They’re a good start,” Sienna lofted.
“Daddy, can I see the fish?”
“Sure.”
Elizabeth grabbed Sienna, tugging her along. Just like that, it was the two of us.
I cleared my throat. “So, Elizabeth’s mom... can I ask?”
“You can ask. No guarantee I’ll answer.”
“It’s just I figure you’re not together if Elizabeth is picking up girlfriends for you.”
Liam choked on his sip. He was too dignified a man to spray the table red, but I bet money I brought him close.
“Excuse me?”
“She asked Sienna, and then me, what we thought about taking up the role.” I smirked at him. I was both honest and the tiniest bit mischievous. Okay, so maybe I did sometimes go looking for trouble. “She hoped the age difference wouldn’t bother me.”
He swore. “Forgive her. A misinformed child in her playgroup told her daddies need someone to take care of them or they’ll get lonely. I thought we settled this, but it seems I need to speak to her again.”
“No, it’s okay. I wasn’t bothered by it. Actually, I think it’s adorable that she’s holding auditions for the woman who’ll cure your loneliness.”
“Adorable is not the word.”
I laughed, and our knees bumped again.
“Out of curiosity, did you turn down the audition?”
My grin froze on my face. His widened. I wasn’t the only mischievous person at this table.
“Yes,” I replied, lifting my chin. “I’m thinking a grown man likes to do his own auditioning.”
“I do.” Warmth ghosted on my cheeks, igniting sizzling sparks as his fingers glided over my skin, and zinging through my body. “And there’s a cut-off age for the role.”
He dropped his hand, then our conversation—standing up and moving to join Elizabeth and Sienna at the fish tanks. I half appreciated his walking away from me. He didn’t see me sink red-faced into the seat, wishing the cushions would swallow and crush me.
With one sentence, Liam made himself abundantly clear. He was not interested in me, so stop flirting with him.
Groaning, I covered my face. I didn’t really mean to. It’d been so long since a man looked at me like I wasn’t gum he scraped off his shoe, or an easy ride desperate enough to fuck him for that gum. For the first time in a long time, I felt pretty, sexy, confident... and I acted like a fool.
I didn’t blame Liam for shutting me down. The truth was, I didn’t think our age difference was too far to overcome. Liam wasn’t the first older man I looked twice at, and the last one looked back. He didn’t rebuff me. He didn’t stop at touching my cheek, and getting involved with him was the worst mistake of my life—worse than Digger.
I peeked at Liam over my fingertips. Thanks for bringing me back to reality, Hunt. That’s the real gift you gave me tonight.
My man-picker was seriously fucked up. Over and over again, I fell for monsters in human suits. That I was attracted to him was reason enough for me to stay away from Liam Hunt.
LIAM
Sienna oohed and aahed over Elizabeth’s fish friends. I smiled along as she pointed them out to me, covering my amusement at Mackenzie Blaine’s cute attempt to feel me out.
I peeked at her slumped in the booth, hiding her face. Her embarrassment—also cute. On top of blushing every time she bumped my knee and ducking her head at my compliments. Cute was the word for her—except when I walked into Sole’s place that night and saw her standing there in that dress, hip jutting out and exposing a long, tanned leg through her slit. Cute was not the word that came to my mind as she brushed her hair back, denying its attempt to cover her ample cleavage.
She was an attractive young woman, anyone with a pulse could see that, but the sticking point was young. The time to date twenty-three-year-olds with a planeload of baggage was seven years and eight months ago, before Hurricane Giselle blew through my life, wrecked everything in her path, and left behind a baby. At this point in my life, any woman I got involved with for longer than an evening had to accept Elizabeth was first, last, and everything in between. And she had to feel the same. Mackenzie Blaine...
My gaze softened on her.
Reading of her past twinged something that felt close to... sympathy. Even if I was willing to meet the sensual woman beneath those blushes and tight dress, she needed to focus on getting her life on track, and I say that without judgment. There were wrongs she had to right. People she had to prove wrong. She couldn’t move forward until she did.
This long list of reasonings is foolish. I turned my back on her. I needn’t convince myself of the reasons Blaine won’t be the one to “cure my loneliness.”
I never liked brunettes.