Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Gently prying her arms from my waist, I turn and gather her into my arms, hugging her close. “It was the chipmunk. It was just Andy, probably looking for more nuts. You still have one in your bra?”
She snuggles closer, resuming her death grip around my torso. “Yes, but I’m too scared to get it out right now. I’ve watched enough horror movies to know you shouldn’t mess around with nudity when it’s this dark. Not even partial nudity. You don’t get to be the final girl if you get naked too early in the film; you get stabbed.” Her voice climbs half an octave as she adds, “Probably with the kitchen knife we left in the butcher block like total idiots who had no idea they were in a horror movie until it was too late!”
I consider reassuring her that we’re not in a horror movie and that the chipmunk is a friend who has no interest in eating her face.
But I’m not completely certain that Andy has good intentions and Holly is rapidly moving past the point of easy reassurance. She’s entered the realm of primal fear and needs a change of venue—STAT.
Making the executive decision to act first and ask forgiveness later, I bend down, leaning into Holly’s mid-section and flipping her over my shoulder. She lets out a startled whoop as I start for the stairs but doesn’t ask to be set free. She just wraps her arms around my waist yet again—this time upside down—and holds on tight as I plod up the circular staircase toward the gray light above.
“Thank you,” she finally whispers. “I’m really glad my feet aren’t touching the floor anymore.”
“You’re welcome. And my pleasure.”
She lets out a nervous laugh. “Probably, not, but thank you for saying so. I’m sure there’s nothing pleasurable about dealing with a fully grown woman who’s terrified of the dark, but…I can’t help it. That’s why I always carry a flashlight in my purse. Just in case. Perry used to make fun of me for it. Said my bag weighed a thousand pounds.”
“Perry?” I ask, mostly to keep her calm and talking as I climb, not because I’m curious if she has an ex-boyfriend waiting in the wings, dying to win her back.
Because of course, he’s dying to win her back. Any man with the sense God gave a rabid chipmunk would.
“My ex-husband,” she says, making my jaw clench. “We divorced seven years ago. Amicably, though. We were usually amicable. Except when he was teasing me about being afraid to go to the bathroom at night without turning all the lights on, and I was threatening to unplug the modem if he didn’t stop playing video games.”
At the top of the landing, I bend my knees, setting her gently back on her feet. It’s dark up here, too, but there’s enough light from the one functional streetlight outside for me to make out Holly’s shape in front of me.
Though I can’t see her face, which makes it hard to know if she’s kidding when she says, “So when I spend the night at your place, you’ll have to put a nightlight in the bathroom. Otherwise, I’ll turn the bedroom lamp on, wake you up from a dead sleep, and you’ll hate me come morning.”
I lift a hand, smoothing it over her hair. “I could never hate you.”
“I could never hate you either,” she whispers. “Though I will be really embarrassed if you say an adult sleepover is off the table. It’s been a long time since I had an adult sleepover.”
“Me, too,” I confess, sliding my free hand down to grip her hip again, finding it every bit as delicious as it felt before.
“I don’t believe you,” she says, her voice husky and sexy as fucking hell. “I bet women throw themselves at you all the time. Fancy women, with great jobs and fabulous hair and no peanuts in their bras. Not even one.”
“And why would I want a boring woman like that?” I ask, bending my lips to hers.
At the first brush, the barest friction of her warm lips and mine, I know that this kiss is different than any that have come before.
This kiss is sunlight in the darkness, a roaring fire on a cold winter’s day.
This kiss is…magic. And as her arms tighten around my neck and she presses her curvy body tighter to mine, I’m pretty sure my heart grows at least two sizes.
Maybe three.
Other things are growing, too, of course, things Holly makes it clear she approves of by rocking her hips into my erection with an eager sound I don’t have to hear twice. I sweep her back into my arms and aim myself toward the front room where, in addition to an abundance of quirky memorabilia, I also spotted a children’s coloring area—complete with mats and pillows for laying on while you color and a small tent for shelter from prying eyes.