Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
My heart squeezed a little. How could he ever think that was rude?
“You are the furthest thing from boring,” I told him, looking him up and down. I still wanted to devour every inch of him, but more than that, I wanted him to rest. “Let me cuddle you to sleep.”
He puffed out a little laugh. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Thought you liked having a cuddle buddy,” I said, taking a step toward him. He smelled minty fresh, like he’d just brushed his teeth.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Rush, you could cuddle me every day for the rest of my life, and I’d love it every time,” he said. “Of course I want that. But I don’t want to keep you here for no reason.”
I let out a breath, closing the distance between us and wrapping my arms around him. “I’ve got no better place to be. Let’s head to bed.”
We kicked off our boots and Shawn led me toward his bedroom, which was no less tasteful than the rest of the house. The bedroom was modest, but his bed frame was made of gorgeous stained wood.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You made this bed frame?”
“Huh?” he said, looking over at it. “Oh. Yeah. Like, ten years ago. Wasn’t very hard.”
I clicked my tongue. “You’re incredible, and you don’t even know it.”
He was smiling as he pulled off his pants and shirt and dove into bed, snuggling up under the covers right away. I did the same and got in next to him on the other side of the bed, cozying up to the heat of his body under there.
He let out a soft sound that was something between a moan and a sigh as I wrapped an arm around him from behind, tugging him close to my body.
“If I wasn’t two seconds from falling asleep right now,” he murmured, “I’d be pushing my luck.”
I hummed. “You’d be successful, just so you know,” I said, leaning in to press a slow kiss to the back of his neck. “Sleep.”
It didn’t take long before his body relaxed and his breathing got heavy, and I knew he’d drifted off. I kept him held close to me for a long while, enjoying every damn part of it. His sheets smelled so clean and also like him, his body wash, his fresh scent that I’d gotten so addicted to lately. For a while, I was harder than hell, wishing that I could bury my cock deep inside of him.
My mind started to flood with thoughts after he’d been asleep for a while, though. It couldn’t have even been eleven o’clock at night yet, and usually I’d still be at the brewery right now for at least another couple of hours.
Shawn had been tired, but I was pretty much wide awake. Old fears started to wrap their way around my heart, and I chewed the inside of my cheek as my thoughts raced.
This was the sort of thing that would have me heading for the hills with anybody else I’d hooked up with. I’d been fiercely independent and kept my distance from people for so long that I’d all but forgotten there was any other way to do things.
But doing things this way with Shawn had felt effortless. Every step of the way. I wanted to know more about him. I thought about him in my free time, all the goddamn time. I wondered what he was eating for lunch, or what he was wearing, or what kind of project he was working on that day.
Why was that so scary to think about? Was it really because I was afraid I’d hurt Shawn? Or that I was afraid he could hurt me?
My heart pounded a little faster as I turned that idea over in my mind. Deep down, there was a part of me that felt like I might not even be good enough for someone like Shawn. Someone so naturally kind, loving, and earnest. I felt like I’d been on a rocketship in my life, ever since I was a young teenager, focused on only two things: hot hookups and a killer career.
Shawn… Shawn was a whole person. He had an awesome career, too. Not to mention a great body, a sweet personality, and the ability to have a ton of fun.
But there was something I was missing that I knew he wasn’t.
Sure, I knew how to flirt, but it felt like Shawn knew how to love. And that was the scariest thing of them all—love was honestly a foreign concept to me, one I’d never much been given and certainly didn’t know how to make sense of. I felt cold, compared to someone like Shawn. And it gave me a sense of isolation I’d never known was such a big part of me.
I slowly shifted on the bed, trying to be as quiet as I could as I slipped out of it.