Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
"You took the words right off my back." Dawn winks.
"It would be awesome." He tugs her against his chest, and she giggles, struggling to hold her plate level.
"It would be," she says, as he releases her. "Maybe one of you should draw up a schedule."
Lachlan makes a choking sound, and my first instinct is to look across at Bryce. It’s funny because it’s his first instinct to look at me too.
Would we want to be on that schedule? Is she even serious?
Of course we would.
Not just for the sex, although I have a feeling that part would be mind-blowing. It sounds strange, but I’m used to working with these men. We’re used to collaborating on the thing that makes us happiest in life, our business. And there’s just something about Dawn, something fun and joyful and carefree that’s wrapped around my heart and squeezed.
It’s the thing that makes me want to envelop her in my arms and urge her to share all her secrets.
The thing that makes me want to tell her my story.
The thing that makes me want to add a dash of cinnamon to my pancake recipe tomorrow.
Maybe I’ll get the chance if she’s serious about all this flirty talk, and Lachlan doesn’t put an embargo on more of us having fun.
11
COOPER
After the conversation at breakfast, Dawn returns to her bedroom, and the atmosphere between my friends and I crackle with an energy I’ve never felt before. And that’s saying something. With nine men under one roof, and women coming and going over the years, there has been plenty of discussion and disagreements, but we’ve always found our way through. This time is different.
It’s like we’re all anticipating the start of something we don’t even know is coming.
But first we need to know what happened between Dawn and Thomas. Before I get a chance to grill him, Mitchell steps up.
"Is that your new tactic?" Mitchell asks him, rubbing his beard thoughtfully. "You make them cry with your soulful voice and then seduce them when they're weak and upset."
"Chill out," Thomas says, punching him on the shoulder. "You make me sound like some kind of sexual predator. I was just trying to be a good guy."
"I know," Mitchell laughs. "I’m just playing with you."
"You think she’s serious about that conversation?" Lachlan asks, his expression is measured but his tone makes him seem intrigued.
Jared shrugs his shoulders. "If you’d told me last week that a girl would come into our lives who’d want to fuck all of us, and we’d think it was a cool idea, I’d have laughed my fucking head off. But Dawn’s special."
"She is special," Thomas says with a softness to his voice that makes me suddenly jealous. I want some of the special. Right now, it feels like four of us have been welcomed into this awesome place while the other five have been left standing out in the wilderness.
"What’s so special?" I ask, curious.
"It’s just the way she’s so authentic," he says.
"Authentic? That’s a big fucking word."
"I just mean she’s true to herself, and as open as any girl I’ve ever met…and I don’t mean physically…although I guess that’s true, too. I mean mentally. She wants to connect. She wants to live in the moment and appreciate whatever that brings."
"Authentic." I nod, getting what he means. Finding people like that is hard. Relationships are complicated because people don’t communicate what they really want or feel. For the first few months, most people put on an act and then gradually let the mask slip. By the time you realize that you’re with someone who’s different from what you originally thought, it’s too late. You’re connected, and that connection gives you something to lose. I’ve heard it called a soul-tie. Make too many soul-tie connections and it changes you as a person, apparently. I’m not sure if I believe it. I’m a live and let live, love and be loved kind of person, but part of me craves a longer and deeper connection than I’ve found so far.
Part of me wants to be seen for the man I truly am.
Part of me also wants to know that no woman will ever come between me and my friends.
It’s been weighing on me for the last six months. It’s the first time we’ve all been single, and it’s come about because of the issues we’ve had with dating. When each of us tries to have a relationship, it ends up causing problems. Priorities seem to shift. People set their sights outside the business. More than once, I’ve worried that people from outside our tight group would bring Cloud 9 crashing down.
I don’t want to lose my friends to an implosion like that. I worry especially that if anything happened to disrupt the status quo, Jared and Joshua would return to London. Lachlan to Scotland, and Bryce and Bradley to the US. Half of my brothers - I think of them that way - would be gone. I love Mitchell, Logan, and Thomas, but it wouldn’t be the same without the rest. Logan’s the only one with family ties to the local area. The rest of us would probably drift back to our hometowns and cities and then Cloud 9 would be just an amazing memory.