Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
“No.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I do not.”
“Call anybody you know who you think is up right now at one in the mornin’ and see what they say.”
“I have a lot of friends.”
“Yes, you do. Lots of good ones that you see, like you did Malik tonight, pretty regularly. Maybe twice a month.”
“That’s all?”
I nodded.
“Is that right? Can that be right?”
Giving him a little clench, I would have let go, but he slipped his arm around my waist to keep me close, right there beside him.
“I see a lot of people,” he said softly.
“You see the assholes we work with the most. Parties, barbecues, events, stuff like that. And then you see people like Malik occasionally, and the same with a lot of your other friends, and you date.”
“Yes.”
“But once you’ve figured out what makes someone tick, you lose interest.”
“No. I don’t do that.”
“I really wish it wasn’t so late because you could ask your mother, or Talia, or any woman you’ve ever dated, or Malik… I mean, everybody knows you do it.”
“That makes me sound terrible.”
“It’s just hard sometimes for other people, and that’s why they call me or Talia because your attention is like a drug, and once you get a taste of it, you want to have it all the time.”
“Is it?” he husked, and the rumble in his voice made my stomach flip over.
“Yes. But like I said, it’s not only women.”
“No, see, I don’t know what you—”
“You do it with guys too. You invite them along, and this other person is with us constantly, and then…suddenly they’re gone.”
“It’s difficult and time-consuming to figure out what a group of people want to do. Take tonight: Malik and I thought we were doing one thing, and then plans changed. That’s not my favorite thing, you know that. I like to know what I’m doing when I leave the house.”
“We never have a plan,” I reminded him.
“But that’s how we are. That’s an us thing.”
I shook my head at him.
“What?”
“When there’s only me and you, you’re different.”
“How so?”
“You don’t seem to need a plan. Everythin’ is easy.”
He was quiet, possibly thinking about that, but when I looked at his profile, I realized that I was having a discussion with him like normal when everything had changed. Why wasn’t I attacking him and dragging him into an alley for a blowjob?
“You’re all up in your head, Del.”
“I was thinkin’ that I should be all over you, not talkin’ to you.”
“You could kiss me again,” he whispered. “That wouldn’t be terrible.”
Leaning in, I kissed his jaw, and when he tipped his head, a bit farther down on the side of his neck.
“Yeah, see?” His voice was gravelly and low. “Just that made my stomach twist up.”
“Is that a good thing?”
His heated gaze met mine, and I nearly swallowed my tongue. The intensity in his dark eyes was not something I’d ever had focused on me before. “It’s a very good thing.”
He was quiet, and I took that moment to make my lungs work.
“I’m not an idiot,” he said, studying my face. “I understand the point of the lesson you were giving me.”
“I didn’t mean it to be no lesson. I’m worried, is all.”
“That this might wreck us.”
I nodded.
“Because?”
“People get emotionally attached to you, and then you bail,” I explained, trying to remain calm. “That’s the truth, and I can’t have that happen to me.”
“That won’t happen,” he replied flatly. “Because I’m already as attached as you are.”
“Are you? You’re not confusin’ it with friendship?”
“No, sir,” he informed me, grinning.
“And there are other things as well.”
“Like?”
There was no way to have a discussion standing as close to him as I was.
“I know,” Lang said simply.
“You don’t.”
Stopping, he dropped his arm and stepped back, walking a few feet away before turning to face me. The way he was looking at me, like he was deciding something, hopefully not that he was done with the idea of us already, made it hard to breathe. “You’re having thoughts like, how the hell is bed supposed to work when we’re both tops.”
There was that. Sort of.
“Except you’re not,” he said.
“I’m not what?”
“The guy always doing the fucking.”
“Crudely put.”
He shrugged. “I watch you all the time, and I’ve seen some guys drag a hand over your ass, and I’ve seen your reaction.”
I nodded. “Watch me a lot?”
“Constantly. That’s how I know everything about you, and yet I still never get bored.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t know. That stung a bit. “We should get movin’,” I said, and started walking, fast. “We’re gonna pass out standin’ up if we—”
“Stop,” he ordered, and when I froze, he caught up with me easily, stepping into my space and taking hold of my hips. “I meant to say, I didn’t know—past tense—and that’s what was messing me up. That’s what I had to figure out in my head.”