Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
A few minutes later, I’m in a chopper with Grayson and Mia as a couple and me and Gabe as another, with our dog. Our dog. His dog. The dog. My God, what is happening to me? I’m not adopting a dog or a man. They keep trying to adopt me and I wish it didn’t feel so good. I can’t let the feeling I have with Gabe take me over the top. If I can’t say no to him, this needs to be fun and pleasure. It needs to be a fling. This man hasn’t even been married. He’s not the marrying kind. There is no reason this just can’t be fun. Well, except my ex.
Fling.
Fun.
Sex.
What isn’t he telling me?
A lot, I remind myself. I barely know him.
Rephrase.
What doesn’t he want to tell me? Will he ever tell me? Do I want him to tell me? He squeezes my leg and I look over at him, the chopper’s arms clanking above us, the dark night sky seeming to cradle us, and I’m so very lost in this man. In his eyes. In his secrets. In his laughter and giant personality. I’m going to fall for him. I’m going to fall really hard.
He kisses my hand and when he looks at me again, I watch the confusion in his eyes, and I don’t think this is something he often feels. He’s confused but about what? Me? Us? The dog? Me, I think. Us, I think. Not the dog. Dexter is Dexter. He’s a dog. He’s love. He’s simple. That’s what I love about animals. They’re simple. They love. They eat. They sleep. They love some more.
Gabe is not a simple man. I know this instinctively no matter how simple he tries to seem.
I’m a simple girl. I want to be, at least. I want to be that simple girl with a hot man who loves her and doesn’t cheat on her. A man who loves her and doesn’t betray her. The problem is, I’m not sure I believe that man exists in this world. And as Gabe has said, he fucks. That’s what he does. I cut my stare from his.
What am I doing?
I just told myself to have a fling and now I’m mad at him for being the guy who is the perfect fling?
He leans in, earphones and noise preventing conversation and cups my face, drawing my gaze to his, a question in his eyes. Fuck. I want to fuck and be fucked without being fucked over. I want that to happen with Gabe. It already has. It can. He’s not the guy who sued me. My ex is that guy. And damn it, I deserve a Gabe. I deserve to just enjoy life. I deserve to forget that lawsuit and the threats of this night and just be with this man. That means he can’t hurt me. He’s just sex and sex and more sex.
I like sex.
I haven’t liked sex in a long time, but I do now with Gabe.
I’m going to do just that. We’re going to land and I’m going to let him know what I want.
I press my lips to his and kiss him. He leans back to look at me and frowns as if he doesn’t like something he tastes on my lips.
He sits back in his seat, and we finish the ride with this awkwardness between us that steals all my thunder. When finally we’re on the ground, Gabe encourages Grayson and Mia to deboard first. We follow, and when we would enter the building, he pulls me to him and cups my face. “What happened up there in the air?”
Be bold, I tell myself. Be the girl who kissed him by the bathroom and stay focused on the fling and the escape. Set him free now, before this becomes trouble. “I decided to let you off the hook. I don’t need everything. I just need you naked.”
Chapter twenty-eight
Gabe
The chopper behind us seems to churn Abbie’s statement over and over in repeat: I just need you naked. I just need you naked. I hear those words in my head, over and over and fucking over.
Normally a sexy woman telling me she just wants to keep me naked would wind me up and get me ready for a hot night or two or even three, of fucking and fucking some more. It’s not that simple with Abbie and yet it’s as simple as my next breath. The simple truth is that this isn’t just sex.
I take her hand and lead her forward and once we’re inside the airport, I cut left and to the right, into a hallway that leads to another, private hallway. The minute we round the corner, I turn her and press her against the wall and force her to own her words. “It was loud outside, Abbie. Repeat yourself now.” I press my hands on either side of her head. “I’m listening. Say what you said to me out there, right here, right now.”