Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Both.
He was frozen in place, yet burning up with a fever.
She . . . he . . . could see the undercurve of her ass cheeks. The black lace of her panties. The incredibly smooth section of her rear upper thighs. She was the hottest thing he’d ever seen in his life, no question about it. Especially when she laughed and it caused her to fall forward onto the table, barely catching herself on a forearm and the tight curve of that backside got even more dramatic and . . . dangerous. Very fucking dangerous. Because he was imagining the chafe of those stockings against his palms, the supple weight of her ass cheeks in his hands, how she’d shiver and look back at him over her shoulder when he pulled those panties down to her knees.
These were not the types of thoughts he should be having when they were not the only two people in the apartment. Hell, he shouldn’t be thinking about taking off her underwear at any time, right? She’d given him no obvious indication that she was interested in that. He’d simply walked in at the wrong time, and now he’d be haunted for the rest of his life by fantasies of those stockinged legs wrapped around his neck.
Where was she going in that outfit?
Out?
One thing was for sure, Tallulah couldn’t know he’d seen her like this. Their relationship as boss and employee was fragile to begin with, as was her ability to trust men, in general. Getting caught ogling her absurdly hot ass would not help matters. Don’t think about how it would look slapping off your stomach.
Too late.
Burgess backed out of the apartment as quietly as possible, making an unnecessary amount of noise when he entered the second time, coughing and ramming his knee into the door, jangling his keys as he locked and unlocked it again. This time, when he walked inside, Tallulah and Lissa were well aware of his presence. Tallulah gave him a light smile on her way into the kitchen and Lissa waved to him from the kitchen table.
“Dad!” Lissa shouted over the music. “She made the chicken again!”
Burgess raised an eyebrow at Tallulah, who gave him a prim sniff—or at least he thought she sniffed, the band from hell was doing everything in its power to drown her out. “We had all the ingredients left over from last night. I didn’t want them to go to waste.” She turned on the water in the kitchen sink to rinse her dish, casting him another quick glance over her shoulder. “Left you a plate, if you want it.”
If he wanted it. Was she serious? The only thing Burgess wanted to eat more than her lemon chicken with a side of Saksuka was . . . her.
And wow, you are disgusting. Obviously, the rookies were rubbing off on him.
Burgess dropped his duffel bag just inside the door, took off his jacket and draped it over the hook. “How was school today?”
“Good. No volleyball practice.” Lissa’s concentration was back on her homework. “Tallulah moved in, but she’s already going out.”
“Out?” Burgess asked, casually as possible, while leaning down to untie his boots—and his back spasmed. It was like someone had stuck a plucked tuning fork in his kidney, a painful vibration zooming through the right side of his lower back. His breath lurched out of his lungs and he had to slap a hand against the wall for balance, a guttural sound escaping him before he could lock it inside. Dammit.
“Dad?” Lissa called from the table, obviously alarmed.
His daughter’s panicked tone was the reason he immediately tried to straighten up, even though his contracting muscles weren’t ready for it. Too bad. He pushed through the strain and sent his kid a tight smile. “I’m fine. Just sore.”
Burgess looked toward the kitchen to find Tallulah watching him closely.
Too closely.
In her mini skirt and makeup, all dressed up to go meet someone who could bend over and untie their boots without needing painkillers. Lissa still looked worried, so he fought through the pain of leaning down and picking up his duffel bag again, tossing it over his shoulder. “I’m just going to throw these sweaty clothes in the laundry. Keep working on your homework and I’ll be back.”
His daughter relaxed somewhat. “Okay.”
Burgess passed through the living room to the other side of the apartment, down the short hallway where the bedrooms were located, along with one of two bathrooms in the residence. The other was his ensuite. Despite the lock he’d installed this morning, the guest room door had been left slightly ajar, so after checking to make sure no one was watching, he craned his neck to look through the opening and saw Tallulah’s suitcase open on the queen-sized bed, her sneakers untied on the floor, jacket hanging on the knob of the closet door.