Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“It’s only because I feel the same,” I tell her.
We delve into the garlic bread. She makes pleasure-filled noises as she chews. “Am I being a pig?”
“Don’t say that. Don’t even think it.”
“About the childhood stuff, anyway, I feel bad even… you know, feeling bad. Compared to you—”
“We’ve got the same desire, Piper. We both want to live. And sure, some of mine is because I had a shitty start. But some of it is down to everyday life stuff, too. I worked a lot of jobs before you gave me the idea for Do It All.”
“I did not give you the idea.”
“Yes,” I say seriously. “You did. After we kissed, when you told me you wished you could do it all, that was when it came to me.”
“Does that mean I get some shares, huh?”
“Yes,” I say, still serious. “If you wanted some, they’re yours.”
She picks up the menu. “Slow down, Logan.”
“I don’t think I can with you.”
She arches her eyebrow magnetically. “I was talking about this conversation. What are you thinking for a main?”
“Steak, rare, like the animal I am. What about you?”
“Would you judge me if I messily ate a double burger in front of you?”
“Now you’ve said that I’ll judge you if you don’t.”
“Steak and burger it is, then,” she says with a smile. “But let’s enjoy this first.”
I take a large piece of garlic bread, tearing a chunk loose with my teeth. When she laughs, I tear another piece.
“Stop,” she says, giggling. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”
I wash it down with champagne, then say, “I’m already sick. Lovesick with you.”
She rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling, her cheeks a tempting shade of pink. “How do you say stuff like that in person? I can text things like that, but saying it is so difficult.”
“Maybe it would be if I didn’t want you so badly,” I tell her. “But it’s the truth.”
“If you’d told me you loved me when I was in high school, I would’ve—” She suddenly stops, realizing what she’s saying. “Anyway.”
“When you were in high school?”
She shakes her head. “It’s nothing.”
I touch her hand. “Clearly, it’s something…”
She stares down at the table, her cheeks growing even redder.
CHAPTER 20
PIPER
Ican feel the blaze in my cheeks, the tension heating me up. I didn’t mean to say that. It just came out.
When I look at Logan, I want to turn back time and make it so I never word-vomited that at him. He looks at me with understanding in his eyes. How long has it been since we climbed into the helicopter? I feel like we’ve bonded a lot in that short time.
Then again, thinking of time and how fast things move doesn’t make much sense to us. We’ve got all the speed of a whiplash without any of the discomfort.
“It doesn’t matter,” I murmur.
“If that’s true, then I’ll accept that. But if you’re not telling me something because you’re worried about how I’ll react, please know, Beautiful, there’s no need. I’ll go tell the staff about our choice for mains.”
I watch him go, walking confidently across the romantic restaurant. Nerves swirl in my belly. But it’s not like I can keep this from him forever… or whatever forever means for us if Elliot finds out.
Logan returns, sitting down, his shoulders tensed, his suit jacket hugging his powerful frame as he watches me.
“I had a crush on you,” I say, ripping off the reveal Band-Aid-style. “When I was a kid. That’s all. It wasn’t anything, you know, over the top. I wasn’t some teenage stalker filling your notebooks with your name. But did I think you were hot? Yeah, I did.”
A subtle smile touches his lips. “Why would you be afraid to tell me that?”
“I thought you might find it… weird.”
He shrugs. “The past is the past. To me, you were Elliot’s kid sister, nerdy and enthusiastic about books. It wasn’t until your party that I saw the woman you’d become. I don’t have a problem with it if you don’t. The past doesn’t matter. I care about the here, the now, about the us we can be every day for the rest of…”
When he trails off, I stand, walk to his side, and slip onto his lap. I’m surprised by my forwardness, but the wave of relief washing through me makes it easy.
“The rest of our lives?” I whisper.
“I want to say it. I’d mean it. But…”
“Nothing else exists, remember?” I whisper. “Would you be offended if I kissed you with garlic-bread breath?”
He smirks, sinking his hands into my hips. I love it when he does that. Each time, it’s with a possessive quality. He makes a trembling noise of desire as if he’s not sure he’s going to stop. It makes me so freaking wild.
“I’d be offended if you didn’t…”
I kiss him fiercely, gripping his firm arms, sliding my touch around him, and shivering with tingles of pure passion when I feel his firm manhood grinding against me.