Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“What?” I protested. “Okay. Fine. Maybe you’re right.”
“I know I am,” he said, tossing back a sip of my cocktail.
“You’re young.”
“I know that, too.”
Fuck, I was staring at his lips again. I kept trying to act like I wasn’t actively watching him, but I was pretty sure I was doing a terrible job of it now. The way the sleeves on his shirt were rolled up, and his forearms looked so strong and soft at the same time. The way a piece of his hair fell over his forehead every once in a while, and he always pushed it back the same way, sometimes glancing over at me afterward, too.
His lashes were thick and dark but the green eyes behind them were soulful, even when he was trying to give me his best fuck-off glare.
I wanted to know everything about him.
I wanted to ask so many more questions, to figure out how someone could be 21 and so sure of himself, so much smarter than I had ever been, then or now.
He wasn’t just hot. He was fucking gorgeous. And I was definitely staring again.
“It’s okay. You’ll love all of my friends, and they said they’re excited to meet you, too. I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”
There was a slight smile forming at the corner of his lips, which only made me want to stare at them more. “Excited to meet me? Did you tell your friends about me?”
I felt heat in my cheeks. “No. I mean, yes, but I only told them that we’re definitely not going to fuck.”
He was full-on smiling now. Was I making everything worse?
“Babe, you’re not even going to be awake by the time this party is supposed to start,” he said.
“I’m not sleepy, I’m just… fuzzy. Babe.” I realized that I’d somehow slumped backward onto the pillows of my couch, and now I kind of felt like I was floating on a marshmallow. “I can’t fall asleep if I haven’t watched The Office yet.”
“The Office?”
“I watch it before I go to bed, whenever I had a shitty day and I’m alone,” I explained. “I really have to watch it if I watched a horror movie. I love horror movies. But if I watch one at night, I can’t go to bed alone and scared. What a fucking combo. So, The Office solves all of that. One or two episodes before bed keeps the scaries away.”
Jesse was looking at me like he was trying hard not to laugh. “We can turn on The Office if you want.”
I reached out and pushed his arm. “No way. I don’t feel bad when you’re here. And right now I’m like a little marshmallow s’more, anyway.”
“Hmm?”
I was saying things out loud that I should have been keeping inside. “You look good in this light,” I told Jesse. “Like a fucking painting. Way better than the other night when we had no power on in here.”
“Did I look bad in the dim light?” he teased.
“No. You’re always beautiful,” I murmured.
I felt so warm inside. The sound of his laugh was even better. I hadn’t heard that enough, but Jesse seemed more relaxed now.
God, it was good to see him happy. He deserved to be happy like that more often, and I wanted to fucking smack the guy who had ever taken advantage of Jesse. Who wouldn’t want him? Who wouldn’t want to keep him forever?
“And you’re on another plane of existence right now,” Jesse said.
“No I’m not,” I said, struggling to sit up a little straighter and mostly failing. “I’ll prove it. Ask me anything.”
“Where are we right now?”
“Heaven, as far as I’m concerned.” He reached out to shove me, but I grabbed at his hand, clasping my palm around it. “This is mine now. Ask me another.”
He let me keep his hand, and I gently started stroking it, laying little patterns onto his palm with my fingertips.
“Were you feeling okay earlier today? Truthful answers only,” Jesse said, and I saw that his expression had gone a little more serious.
I paused for a moment before I spoke. “No. I was… very sad. But I was really glad to see your face in my backyard, I can tell you that much. Very honest answer.”
“That’s a relief.”
“What?”
“You looked ready to bring out a shotgun when I first stepped into the yard.”
“No way.”
He made a stern expression, showing me how my face must have looked earlier, and I laughed. “I wasn’t mad. I was worried.”
“Worried…”
I swallowed. “Worried that you’d see the real me. The fucking bad parts.”
He squeezed my hand. “No such thing. You’re going to be fine, Mason. You’re a lot less chaotic than you think you are.”
“You haven’t seen half of it yet,” I told him.
He quirked up an eyebrow. “Tell me more.”
“Don’t want to scare you.”
“You couldn’t freak me out if you tried,” he said.