Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
“Yeah, he does, doesn’t he?” I say softly. Ethan always knows the right things to say and it’s one of the reasons I adore him so much. “Okay… off to class with you. I’ll see you tomorrow night for dinner.”
“Awesome,” Sylvie says as she rises from the chair. She heads for the door, pauses and then turns back. Dropping her bag, she walks around my desk and flings her arms around my neck. “Thank you, Ms. DeLeon… for everything you’ve done for me.”
Tears sting my eyes and I hug her back. “I think when we’re alone, you can call me Marcie, okay?”
She nods against me before pulling away. I watch with a smile as she grabs her bag and heads out of my office.
When the door closes, I pick up my phone and shoot Ethan a quick text. Just had a lovely lunch visit from your daughter. She’s something else.
I go to set my phone down on the desk but it rings and I see it’s Ethan. I connect the call. “Hi. What are you doing?”
“Calling you,” he teases, his low, velvety voice making my belly flutter.
“Yes, you are. But you’re also an incredibly busy man during the day.”
“Not so busy I can’t call you. Plus, you’re busy too, but since you just texted me, I took a chance you had a minute. What’s Sylvie up to?”
Chuckling, I lean back in my chair. “Without divulging anything, let’s just say she’s far too mature for her age, but in a good way.”
“I won’t pry,” he assures me.
“You don’t need to.” I nab my fork, poke around at my salad but realize I don’t like salads all that much and drop the utensil. “She’s going to talk to you about a few things. She seems to think you give good advice and I agree.”
Ethan doesn’t press me for details, nor does he bask in the accolades. Instead, his voice drops even further. “I can’t wait to see you Saturday night.”
“I’m going to see you tomorrow,” I remind him breathlessly because I know exactly what he’s inferring. We haven’t had a night together, alone, since the first time we had sex this past weekend. And well, we had it three times that night, but still… it’s a long wait in between so I admit, “I can’t wait for Saturday either.”
CHAPTER 23
Ethan
I’m a light sleeper by nature, trained to pop out of bed when the alarm goes off or when a midnight emergency happens at one of the barns. But with Marcie curled up beside me tonight—and last Saturday, for that matter—I sleep like the dead.
So I’m groggy as I rise out of slumber, not sure what woke me up. I’m unsettled and it feels like I might have had a bad dream, but I don’t remember a single thing. Lifting my head slightly from the pillow, I see the digital clock on the bedside table says one twenty a.m.
I settle back down, pulling Marcie in closer. I’m spooning her from behind, her naked bottom pressed into me in a way that makes me wish she was awake too. But I know she’s exhausted because after we had dinner (we ordered Chinese takeout), we tore off each other’s clothes and ended up in my bed where we stayed all evening. I doubt I’ve been asleep more than an hour.
The room isn’t quite pitch-black, but it’s dark enough. No moonlight filters through and I seem to remember a storm was forecast to roll in, so I’m assuming it’s heavy cloud cover. I embrace the darkness and close my eyes, letting my mind drift over all things Marcie. As good as it feels to have her in my bed and makes me want it every night, I want more than just sex. I want her at my dinner table and walking the pastures with me and taking Sylvie clothes shopping for school. It’s not hard for me to envision a complete life with her and Sylvie. On the contrary, it might be something I desperately need now that I’ve seen how damn good it can all be.
Maybe it is indeed time to talk to Sylvie about Marcie staying over some nights. Well, all nights. Not like asking her to move in permanently, but… well, maybe. Fuck if I know. I only know what I want.
My phone rings, cutting through the silence and my thoughts. It’s of Marcie I think of first, not wanting to wake her. I reach backward with my right arm, nabbing the phone and am able to thumb the slider and connect the call, but not before I see the name Gabe Mardraggon on the screen.
In the span of the less than one second it takes to put the phone to my ear, I am acutely aware of the time, that Sylvie is staying over at the Mardraggons tonight and Gabe would not be calling if it wasn’t important.