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)
I ran my fingers through his hair, trying to soothe him.
“That’s tied for the worst day of my life,” he rasped. “It’s hard—make that impossible—to let a woman get that close to us, and risk having to tell my daughter again why another person she loved was out of her life.”
“Thank you.” I rubbed the back of my hand down his cheek. “I know that was hard to say, but thank you for sharing it with me. I feel less of a paranoid relationship-sabotaging control freak when I talk to you. Even though I’m probably all of those things.”
“You’re not, Blaine. He’ll wait for you, trust me. For as long as it takes for you to be ready, any man in his right mind will wait.”
“He?” My heart thumped. “Were you speaking about a man in particular?”
“Nope, but you’re thinking of a man in particular, or you wouldn’t have asked the question.”
I seriously considered dumping my cup of paint on his head. “You and Sunny are definitely related.”
“Did you doubt it?” he asked with a laugh.
“Well, I found the little devil’s horns sprouting from his waves around the time he told Shonda I could only have breakfast in bed if he was lying next to me, and I was eating it off his chest. I’ve been looking for yours.” I wiggled my fingers on his scalp for proof. “But apparently they retract.”
“They do as it happens.”
I giggled. “Luckily, there’re other ways to identify the Merchant siblings.”
“And you haven’t met us all yet. Just wait. You won’t have to search for the horns anymore.”
“Now that sounds like the beginning of a trial.”
He chose to chuckle instead of explain. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.
THE NEXT MORNING, SIENNA and I walked into an empty kitchen.
“Shonda? Maggie?” I stuck my head in the butler’s pantry. “Ms. Fuller? Where is everyone?”
“It’s eight o’clock. Shonda usually has the bacon sizzling by now,” Sienna said. “Maybe they have the morning off.”
I clapped. “It’s all good. We can get the bacon sizzling on our own.”
“Morning, ladies,” Sunny called.
“Morning, what do you want for— Where are your clothes!”
Sunny paraded into the living room wearing white briefs that left nothing to the imagination. Chest puffed like a peacock, he threw his arms out, doing a little shimmy on the rug. “I gave everyone the day off. We’re right on the edge of the perfect window. I’ve been radio silent long enough that my guys figured something happened to me. Time’s right for someone to step up and lead while they find out what. That someone is going to be you”—he bowed—“and the lovely Sienna.”
Sienna bowed back. They had a rapport growing that was becoming nothing but trouble.
“I know all of those things,” I gritted. “What I don’t know is why you’re half-naked in the living room?”
“Because it’s finally time for introductions, and you won’t make it onto the block unless I’m with you.”
“Introductions to the Sons of Saint? Won’t that defeat the purpose of playing dead?”
“Introductions to the Merchants, baby.” His wide, beaming smile reflected the opposite of what I felt. “It’s time to meet the fam.”
“We're meeting your family? Today?”
“Yep, and that is the answer to your question. I need your help picking out a disguise, designer. No one can recognize me. What do you think?” He did a perfect, sinful rotation—flexing every body part and slicking my palms. “Can you do anything with this? Transform me into someone else?”
“Oh, she can do something with that,” Sienna mumbled.
I cleared my throat. “A disguise is a good idea, and if you want invisibility, there’s no one better.”
Forty-five minutes later, breakfast was still in the fridge, Sienna and I weren’t dressed, and a broken underwire in my bra poked me all morning, daring me to rip the damn thing off. I did not accomplish any of those tasks, but I achieved the greatest tragedy known to man, and de-sexied Sole Bellisario.
His sleek, polished shoes were replaced with torn-up sneakers missing their laces. I bathed one of his tight white tees in coffee, then dried it in potting soil. Sienna tore up the new jeans I made him. I ratted his hair. Together we smeared dirt on his face and tucked it under an old hoodie that didn’t escape our destruction either. Together, we stepped back to admire our handiwork.
“How’d we do?” Sunny asked.
I mentioned before how drastic a change a little dirt and tears could have. I didn’t mention, or know, that they had nowhere close to the power to dismiss those teasing, silver glints, or his full, smiling lips.
“Forget the clock, this is true invisibility,” I said. “People will go out of their way to avoid you, avert eye contact, and run across the street. They’ll forget you—the blight to their perfect day—just as fast.” I glanced at Sienna. “But what they will notice is two nicely dressed women strolling by your sides. We have to change too.”