Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121233 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“Charlotte will manage,” I promised her, but she kept sifting through her clothes until I got up and physically hauled her into my arms, her back to my chest, sinking us both back down into the bed with her on my lap.
“You brute,” she teased, smacking my chest.
“You love it.”
“Another tip you picked up from my books?”
“Those things are like a treasure map. Just follow the tabs and highlights to find the pot of gold.”
My fingers walked along her thigh until I could cup her, and she rolled into the touch, sighing as her head fell back against my chest. For a moment, she rested there, and then she pivoted in my arms to straddle me again.
“It was awful last night,” she said, brows bending together. “With Shawn. I mean, it was fine, like if I wasn’t in my head about you, I’m sure it would have been a great date. But I was so sick,” she admitted, shaking her head. “When he kissed me, I—”
“He kissed you?”
The ice in my words knocked her silent. “Y-yes.”
I gritted my teeth. “I’ll murder him.”
“Hey, this was our plan, technically. I don’t think we can kill him for doing exactly what we wanted him to.”
I arched a brow in my beg to differ, but Giana smoothed her thumb over it before leaning in for a long, slow kiss.
“I don’t want him,” she said against my lips. “You’ve had me since the first fake kiss.”
I let out a deeper exhale with that, wrapping her up. “That kiss was not fake.”
Giana buried her head in my chest for only a moment before she hopped off my lap altogether, grabbing me by the wrists and tugging me up, too.
“Come on. We have a game to win,” she said, tossing me my t-shirt. I caught her wrist when she did and pulled her back into me.
“I think we already won.”
She smiled against my kiss, letting me dip her back before she shoved me off again.
“Shirt. Now,” she said, snapping her fingers and pointing at the cloth in my hand. “You can try another tabbed scene on me later.”
“Oh, trust me. I plan to. The ones you highlighted in Sated Love…”
Her cheeks burned bright red before she was smacking me in the chest and shoving me toward the front door.
“Get your own breakfast, you book stealer,” she barked.
But that didn’t stop her from melting into me when I pulled her in for one last kiss on my way out.
“COME ON, BOYS! HOLD ’EM!”
Coach Sanders’s voice rang out over the roar of the crowd, almost thirty-thousand people in the stands — most of them wearing the other team’s colors. The Waterville University Bandits were the largest in the state, and they drowned out the NBU students who had dedicated themselves enough to make the drive from Boston to cheer us on.
It had been like that all four quarters.
Rain assaulted us yet again this game, only this time, it was cold enough to turn to sleet, a nasty mixture of rain and snow that made the playing conditions absolutely horrendous. I was already so sore and tired that I thought my body would revolt when I bent into position for the next play, training my mind on our one goal.
Stop the Bandits offense from getting the first down.
They were only up by three points, and with a little over a minute left to play, that was enough time for us to get the ball down the field far enough for Riley to kick and tie the game for overtime. But if they got even one more first down here, they’d be in field goal range — and that would put us down by a touchdown.
The ball was snapped, and I fired off the line, chasing after the wide receiver I was covering. I had him, no matter how he tried to juke and break away. The quarterback’s wild eyes as he frantically searched the backfield told me my teammates were doing their jobs well.
There was nowhere for him to throw, and the poor sucker ran out of time.
One of our defenders blasted through the line, wrapping the quarterback up and taking him down in a sack that made the stadium go quiet, save for the roaring little corner of it that was filled with NBU students.
We celebrated on our way back to the sideline, the loss so big we knew they wouldn’t dare a field goal. And as our special teams jogged out for the kick reception, I guzzled down water and tried to preserve what little energy I had left for what was still to come.
It took every ounce of effort I had to keep my mind on the game and off Giana.
That was new for me. Football had had my full attention since I was a kid. Even when I was with Maliyah, the girl I thought I’d end up marrying, she faded easily to the back of my mind when it was game time.