Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72853 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Blueberry pancakes. That might as well be a bullet straight to my chest. Jace’s favorite. Not that we ever had them out there, wherever out there might have been. Out there meant a lot of places for us, but he talked about how good they were back home and how his mom used to make them. His stepmom too. He had two moms, and they both loved him. He had two, and I had none. I remember how I used to be so madly jealous of him and would then hate myself for it because a grown man should be over shit like that. It wasn’t the kind of jealousy that made me hate him. Just the kind that made me wish I knew even a fraction of the love that glowed on his face when he talked about home.
For me, home was as cold as the ground we often slept on. As strange and foreign as some of the places we first ventured to. It was unforgiving and lean, and the more wits and walls you had about you, the better.
“I should shower,” I tell her.
She looks up at me and never breaks her stirring stride. She doesn’t flinch or smile or give herself away. “I thought we could do that after breakfast.”
I’m floored. What in the ever-loving crispy yam fries? “I—we?”
“Yes. We.” She stops stirring. Finally. But only to take a step back, lean against the island, and look up at me with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. Her pupils are fucking huge, and my dick is rock-hard in my jeans. It’s so hard that it almost causes trauma with the seams and zipper again because they can’t get out of the way fast enough. “You were tired last night, and there were things that needed to be said. I appreciate and respect it, and I’m glad it happened. I think you’re feeling better, and your brain is doing better. I’m going to feed you delicious pancakes, and your body will be happy too. I wouldn’t be me if I weren’t honest, though, so I have to say that on a sexy scale of one to ten, I’m about a solid seven, which means I’m still hot and super bothered. I was thinking a lot about it before last night, and well, basically all night too.”
“What? You were thinking about—”
“Not about that.” She finally goes scarlet. Now. She blushes now. “About the marriage. I don’t care if it has an expiration date. My body needs you. I think I might need you too. Maybe it’s just until two weeks are up, and maybe it’s after. I don’t know how it’s going to go. I got a letter, quit my job, upended my whole life, and stumbled into you. I was completely unprepared. I’m basically just winging it, and I know that’s a great recipe for ultra-disaster, but I’ve lived a very careful life up until now, and it was incredibly dissatisfying. So, even if you wreck me, and it hurts my heart a little, I’m a big girl, and I’ll get over it. We can still have sex and be friends. We can look out for each other, even if we’re in separate places. I’m sorry that I found every reason on earth not to like you when we first met. I’m incredibly sorry if you ever felt like what you said last night was true. That I wanted Jace instead of you. I definitely don’t wish I could replace you. Do I want my brother here? Yes. I’ll always want him here. But I don’t want that to be at any cost to you or anyone else.”
Fuck me with the chainsaw we never had to use. I have zero clue what I’m supposed to say to all that.
Zero. Clue.
But my dick knows. He’s all yes please, yes, dear lord, yessssss in my jeans. She’s already picked him for her team. He wants to hear her say dirty things like the word horny again, which sounds so incredibly old school that it’s just so much more taboo and so much hotter. And yes, I know she didn’t actually say it, but hot and bothered is pretty much the same.
I’m so fucking turned on that I feel like a livewire about to burn the place down. At the same time, I can feel my eyes burning again. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m normally all about careful observation and strategic planning. That’s how I stay alive. By being careful, not taking unnecessary risks, and not putting myself headlong into bodily harm. But Aspen is different. This double-tree-named woman…she’s different from anyone I’ve ever met. She’s so present and so here in my life that I can’t uproot her. Haha. Tree joke. I’ve never felt this out of control. I’m rushing, alright. Straight into it. Heading for the danger.