Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“It’s a first for me, too,” she agreed.
“I want to know you’re mine, nobody—”
“I’m not with anybody, and haven’t been except for you,” Gracen said before he could get out another word. Then, she narrowed her sights on him, adding, “And it better be the same for you—got it?”
Malachi chuckled and straightened up fast to level her lips with a bruising kiss. She couldn’t stop the smile forming against his kiss, or the way she couldn’t control the urge to fist his T-shirt to drag him even closer. Malachi dropped a quick peck to the tip of her nose before finally pulling away.
“I got it,” he told her.
She still wouldn’t let him go.
“I want those things with you, too,” she said.
Malachi nodded, and ticked two fingers under her chin. “Then right now, that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
“Together,” Gracen clarified.
“Looks like it, blue eyes.”
She pulled him down for one more kiss, but knew better than to let him linger lest she forget about the portobello mushrooms on the burger she could die for. Gracen pushed a laughing, grinning Malachi back to his chair, and pointed for him to stay when he finally sat down.
Thankfully, he did. Who knows what kind of show the canoe on the river might have witnessed if Malachi didn’t oblige Gracen’s request.
Her self-control was weak with him.
Gracen replaced the plate, the burger still warm to the touch, in her lap. “I do need to eat sometimes.”
He was already reaching for his own plate when he replied, “I’m not making any promises about what happens when you’re done.”
*
Gracen didn’t expect to feel like a tiny dark rain cloud had followed her into the evening and following morning, but as Malachi moved around the bedroom suite picking up their things so she could pack her overnight bag, she couldn’t deny it any longer.
Malachi appeared unaware.
Frankly, she didn’t give him any reason to believe otherwise when she went straight to old habits. They were so hard to kill, after all. She’d made old friends with hers. There was comfort in familiarity.
Malachi had just dropped her hoodie and jean shorts from the day before to the pile of dirty clothes on the bed when she decided to finally chase the rain cloud away. He’d given her a weekend away from the rest of the world, and she felt like she owed him an explanation for why this had been so important in the first place.
“I don’t know if I mentioned this before,” Gracen said, drawing Malachi’s attention where he stood at the end of the log-frame bed, “but I’ve only ever been in one long-term relationship.”
Malachi turned to face her a little more, folding his arms over his chest with a hint of curiosity in his expression. “Oh?”
“I had two boyfriends. One lasted a week, and the other ...” Gracen rolled her eyes, knowing the exact year, month and number of days she had been with Sonny, but she refused to give that relationship more respect than she could emotionally afford. She, on the leather loveseat across from the fireplace, lifted her naked shoulders under the comforter she wrapped around her body like a cocoon. “Well, that one went on a lot longer. All of high school, basically, but he graduated two years before me.” She waved her hand as his stare lingered more intently on her, forcing herself to admit, “And a bit beyond.”
“And was your last, I take it?” Malachi asked.
Gracen sighed.
The answer should be easy.
Shit just complicated it.
“I’m not going to say that anything that happened after that relationship ended was worth anything talking about,” Gracen said. “If you get what I mean.”
“So, that was your last one.”
“Yeah.”
“What’s the problem, Gracen?” Malachi’s gaze shifted from her to the frosted windows that seemed illuminated with the morning sunlight. “That first time we hooked up, maybe you thought I forgot, but you said you weren’t over your ex. If that’s what you’re getting around to saying here, then I need to ask about yesterday. What was that?”
She didn’t begrudge him for putting it out there. It was a valid question, considering the circumstances.
“I just said I wasn’t over him because that was how I felt at the moment.” As simple as that might seem, it was also true. “I’d only recently found out my ex—who I hadn’t spoken to in years—was getting married. It was basically the first time I’d heard his name in years. I had some shit to work through, but then I kind of stumbled onto you.”
Malachi blinked, and his head tilted slightly to the side like he was trying to figure something out. Gracen decided that she would be the one to fill in the blanks for him. It was only fair.
“I ran into my ex earlier this week—that’s why it was so shitty. Everything went downhill after I saw him because I realized I was still angry, but I didn’t really want to be.”