Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 122125 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122125 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“I know today was a lot,” I admit into the supple skin there. And I do. At the time, I couldn’t see past the end of my own nose, but now, I get it. “And I’m sorry for the awkward position I likely put you in, but I’m still glad you were there.”
She exhales a deep breath and then pulls back just enough to touch her mouth to mine. It’s a soft, subtle kiss, so unlike everything we’ve shared before, and I drink it in languidly.
“I’m glad I left the door unlocked,” she whispers against my lips. “But if you don’t mind, I’d really like you to lock it now.”
My laugh is loud in the otherwise empty space, and I set her back down on her feet. I turn around to lock the door, and she doesn’t waste any time grabbing my hand and dragging me toward the back.
I go willingly, my long legs keeping up easily behind her much shorter ones.
“I’ve never been behind the counter before!” I remark excitedly as she takes me around one end and directly by the cabinet that I know houses my favorite cookies. Though, there are no cookies in sight, and I look at the empty space a little longingly.
“Don’t worry, Ty.” She reads me like a book and giggles. “I have some leftover chocolate chip almond in the back.”
“Really?” I nearly cry, like a kid at Christmas.
She nods, reaching out to grab my hand with both of hers, and pulls me along with a sexy smile on her face. “Uh-huh. And that’s not the only thing.”
“Ohh, I like the sound of this.” I waggle my eyebrows. “What else do you have back here?”
She pulls me around a shiny metal table that’s five or six feet inside the door, and I follow dutifully until we stop on the other side.
“I guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” she replies with a smirk and gestures for me to sit down on a stool, conveniently located behind my legs. I do, and she proceeds to grab a cloth napkin and surprise me by wrapping it around my eyes.
“Blindfolding me?” I ask salaciously. “Day-um, Rach. I sure hope this goes where I think it’s going.”
“Before we get started, what would you say your pain tolerance is?” she asks, and my eyes grow wide beneath the napkin.
“Excuse me?”
“Your pain tolerance?” she repeats. “High or low? I’m just trying to get a gauge for how far I can take this.”
“Uhhh…” I pause, and it only takes two seconds for her to cackle like an adorable crazy person.
She’s totally fucking with me, and I have no qualms with playing along.
“Do you trust me, Ty?”
“Yes.” I answer without hesitation.
She presses a playful kiss to my lips, and there’s a snicker in her laugh that would probably make a normal guy’s nuts crawl up inside him. Luckily, I’m not a normal guy. I love to play and tease, and I can handle just about anything she throws my way.
My only kryptonite, it seems, is a set of blue balls while she does it. And since we’ve opened the floodgates on sleeping with each other, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.
“By the way,” she adds and kisses me once more. “There’s no pain involved, and this is going somewhere really good.”
Rachel moves around in the kitchen a little, I can tell by the noises to my sides and off in the distance, and then calls out from the back. “I’ll only be a minute. Don’t move. Just need to grab something.”
I like the sound of her needing to grab a surprise, so I offer a thumbs-up, a smile, and a promise. “I’ll be right here.”
The sound of her retreating footsteps fades away, and then I hear the soft thud of her padding around on the floor above me. When she returns, her breathing is slightly labored as though she’s been running around, and I can’t help but smile. “What’s up there? A back, back room? A back attic? A back bakery?”
She laughs a little, surprise cutting the noise short and ending it in a near snort. “Oh. No. I guess I forgot you didn’t know this already, but I live up there. That’s my apartment.”
My eyebrows rise, though I doubt she can see them under the napkin blindfold. Now that is interesting.
“That’s cool. Convenient for work.”
She laughs. “Yeah, and it’s a good price too. My sister and her wife let me live there for free in exchange for part-time bakery work.”
I smile. “I’m glad to see you have a tight-knit family too. I never knew my dad—he left when I was little—but the rest of us are about as tight as it gets.”
“Yeah,” she replies. “I noticed.”
“This is actually fun. Not seeing you but seeing you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I like finding things out about you. What else do I need to know? Tell me all about Rachel Rose and how she came to be here now.”