Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
He reached the door and opened it, then stepped inside and gave me a look before closing it behind him.
I ran to catch him and knocked on the door until he opened it, looking out at me through the narrow space that the chain lock allowed.
“That’s easy to just kick in, you know.”
He closed the door.
Laughing, I knocked again. Same scenario, he opened it just a crack, the chain still on.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know, scary person, but you’re freaking us both out.”
Misha was not concerned, as evidenced by his happy yips as he pawed the air.
“And no,” Gale added, “we’re not getting you a knife.”
“I’ll just use yours.”
“So scary,” he whispered to Misha as he closed the door slowly again.
When he looked at me out the window, my heart skipped a beat. There was no doubt about it, I was crazy about Gale Malloy. And so was my dog.
After dinner that night, Gale ran to his place to get clothes to sleep in, and Ada said she was retiring early.
“We’ll just be out here, watching TV, then,” I told her. “The great mahjong rematch will wait for another night.”
“There will be no rematch,” she informed me.
“Yes, there will be, because you cheat,” I informed her right back.
“You can’t cheat at mahjong, and besides, I want you to go to Gale’s.”
“What? No. You can’t be alone. You’ll be scared.”
“I will not be scared even a bit. I wasn’t scared that night, and I’m certainly not scared now,” she said emphatically. “I was far more terrified the night I found the alligator sleeping under my bed.”
I could give her that.
“You haven’t lived until you look into the darkness, upside down, and see eyes staring back at you.”
Jesus.
“But again, I’m not scared, and you need to go stay with Gale before he combusts into a flaming ball of desire.”
First, I was horrified. Then I was simply confused. “A flaming ball of what?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Maks! Open your eyes. The man wants you terribly. Every time he looks at you, there’s so much naked yearning there that I start to get hot flashes again like when I was going through menopause. How are you missing that?”
“I—gross.”
She whacked me in the chest. “Oh, don’t be such a prude. Just take the man to bed already and let nature take its course.”
“This is the most unsexy conversation I’ve ever had in my life.”
Her glare should have killed me right there. “Get out of here now. Take your clothes, take whatever else you need—my brother had exotic oils he brought back from Borneo, but that was ages ago—and go have some fun.”
“Oils from where?”
“And take Misha because he’ll cry if you leave him, and I won’t be here all night trying to console him. Plus, Gale will think it odd if you show up without him.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Get. Out,” she ordered and then wheeled around and exited the room dramatically, leaving me stunned.
Gale, like me, had assumed that Ada would want us there with her the first night home. He was surprised when I walked through the front door.
“What’s going on?”
“Ada threw me out and told me to come over here and have my wicked way with you.”
His face was priceless. I had probably looked just as horrified. “What?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just get the dog settled. I need a shower.”
He waved a hand toward the bathroom. “Anything, just don’t ever say wicked way to me again as long as you live.”
“It’s a deal,” I assured him, heading for the shower.
I was standing in the bathroom after a very long, very hot shower, staring at myself in the mirror, wondering at the changes that had happened so quickly, when I saw Gale in the mirror. He was looking at me, and I could see what Ada meant. His eyes were utterly molten.
“Man, you always look so good in just a towel.”
“Always?” I teased him, even though watching him come near me in only sweats and a T-shirt was making my mouth dry. “You’ve only seen me like this once before.”
“And it’s burned into my brain,” he croaked out, reaching me and putting his hands on my hips, tracing the top of the towel. “Tell me you’re ready and that I can have you.”
“I was always ready,” I rasped, looking at him, loving the way he took firm hold of my ass before he kissed the side of my neck.
“Maybe your body, but not your heart. Not quite.”
“I am now,” I promised.
“That’s very good,” he whispered, stepping back, grabbing my hand and tugging me after him out of the bathroom, through the open door, to the king-size bed.
Yanking the covers down, he then tugged off the towel and shoved me down onto the bed. As he stripped out of his clothes, I got to see all the roping muscle, the long, beautiful lines of him, the miles of gorgeous golden skin.