Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
A knock at the door had her manager standing up from where she had taken a seat on one of the couches. The woman opened it, said a few words, and stepped back, gesturing the person on the other side in.
It was only my favorite man in the entire world.
Part of my heart in another person’s body.
I grinned and instantly went toward the silver-haired man. It had been all of two hours since I’d left them in the suite that Yuki had gotten for us—she’d ignored me when I insisted I could pay for it—but it felt like a whole day instead. It was different when we weren’t separated by work. Even then, he’d drop by during lunch if he was close or on his way home if he had an early day after protecting Colorado’s wildlife.
Rhodes’s gray eyes moved up and down the length of me as he came forward too. His mouth formed an O. “Wow,” he whispered.
“Too much makeup though, huh?”
He shrugged as his hands went to my shoulders for possibly the ten-thousandth time. “Way too much, but only you are even more beautiful without makeup on than with it.” His hands squeezed me. “Nice dress though, Buddy.”
“It’s ‘borrowed,’ and I don’t know how I’m going to pee in it.” The dress I’d been loaned was emerald green, heavy with embroidery, and weighed close to fifteen pounds—or at least that’s what it felt like.
“Pee yourself so you don’t rip it,” he said with a straight face.
I laughed and stepped in close to wrap my arms around his middle. I still hadn’t gotten used to having unlimited access to him. To his rock-solid body that I still perved on every night and every morning, even if I was half asleep when he got home or left.
He’d told me once he worried that I’d get fed up with him working such long hours, and I’d taken my time explaining that was the absolute last thing he had to worry about. In some ways, I’d waited my whole life for him. I could wait a few hours. It wasn’t like he was gone because he enjoyed being away. That was the thing about being confident with what you had. I’d never doubted him, not even for a second.
“I wasn’t sure if I could hug you,” he said, squeezing me back.
“You can always hug me.”
His mouth drifted across my hair, and I knew he was just trying not to kiss my face because of the insane amount of makeup I had on.
“Yuki’s dad invited us to go get dinner. He wants to talk fishing,” he said quietly.
“Is Am going?”
Pulling back, he nodded, his gaze raking down me again.
Yuki cleared her throat way too loud from across the room. “Ora, it’s time to go. Rhodes, do you want to walk her down?”
With his hand settling on my lower back, he ducked his chin in agreement.
We smiled at each other before heading out the door, followed by Yuki’s bodyguard and manager. Security was tight at the hotel as we made our way through the lobby, trailing behind Yuki, who was whispering about something to her manager the whole time. This whole experience was just a little surreal, and I didn’t miss it at all.
Rhodes ducked in close, his voice basically a whisper. “Are you okay? You’re not too tired?”
I shook my head. “Not yet, but hopefully I won’t fall asleep because that would be real embarrassing.”
Mr. Overprotective shot me a side look.
We’d gone to my ob-gyn before planning our trip, but I knew he was still apprehensive about the whole thing even though we had driven. Because of my age, I was at high-risk, but luckily I was healthy in every other way, and it was still early on. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere for a while after this. My aunt and uncle were coming to visit us next. They visited every year.
We stopped at a fancy car I was sure I’d been in before, and he gave my back a little rub. “Have fun.”
“I will. I want to do this just this one time and never again. I’ll probably have enough makeup left over on my face for the next decade anyway.”
His twisting mouth lit up my world like it always did. “You deserve it, angel.” He leaned in and lightly brushed his lips across mine. “Love you.”
And just like it had the first few times he’d said those words, my body reacted like his verbal declaration of love was some kind of addictive drug it needed to survive. The truth was, I didn’t think I’d know how to keep going without it anymore. For a man who hadn’t used the L-word very often in the past, he wasn’t stingy with it any longer. I heard it every morning and every night. I heard him say it to Azalia in quiet little whispers. He said it to Amos on the phone. My favorite lately was when he mouthed it against my stomach.