Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
I nod at my reflection, startled to look up and find another woman looking at me.
“You just made your mind up about something you were struggling with,” she says, a slow smile pulling up the corners of her mouth. “Good for you.”
I leave the bathroom without looking back, but the second the bar comes into view, I’m left wishing I’d stayed in there longer, or even better, that I never came to the Hairy Frog to begin with.
Chase is at the bar, a beautiful woman grinning up at him. Her hand is on his forearm in that way women do when they feel the need to just touch someone. It can be flirty or an offering of support. Chase doesn’t need help with anything, so it has to be the former that has her reaching out to him.
After the pep talk I just mentally gave myself, I should be able to see him and not be bothered. Maybe it’s because the seals on that cage I’ve tried wrapping my heart in just haven’t dried yet, because the sight of the two of them standing there, her slim body in a slinky little dress I could never pull off, makes me want to cry.
I swallow down the burn and take the long way around the room to the front door. I’ll have to figure out how to get home once I can take in a full breath of air. I could go stand by Adalynn’s car until Cash makes his rounds. She’ll be ready to leave by then.
“Madison!”
I shake my head, my feet continuing to carry me toward the front door.
His warm arm catches me before I get there.
“Trying to sneak out without me?” he asks, lining his body up against my back. “Not tonight, sweetheart. Tonight, you’re mine.”
There has to be a flag above the red ones, one that indicates the need to grow wings to get away faster. The fact that this man can go from flirting with one woman to walking away and catching another would definitely qualify.
If someone asks me why I ignored this one, I know the explanation that he wrapped his warm palm around me until it was resting on my lower belly before leading me out of the bar probably won’t cut it, but that’s exactly what happens.
Chapter 27
Chase
Staying away from her all week has been an exercise in futility, a battle I lost tonight the second I saw her in the bar. I know I need to shore up the walls of indifference I spent the last seven days creating, but there’s just something about the woman in a damned sundress that I can’t seem to resist.
The way I approached her tonight was purposeful. It was an exact reflection of what happened that first night, a promise to stick with the original rules we made. I want her to know that I am done crossing the lines we drew. I’m not going to abuse what she has offered me. It’s strictly sex, and if I manage to keep from opening my mouth and saying things I shouldn’t, then she’ll never know the difference.
She doesn’t need to know about the hours I’ve spent wide awake in my bed because she’s in the same house but untouchable. She doesn’t have to know that I’ve broken the rules, that I let myself feel things for her.
I realize my misstep in this genius plan a little too late.
I never should’ve brought her back to the house. It was a mistake because it makes things personal. As I reach for the lamp on my bedside table, I realize that this is the most intimate setting of all.
I told her that first day she showed up here that my bedroom was off-limits, and to my knowledge, she hasn’t been back in here.
Madison has spent the better part of a month making every other room in the house into a cozy livable home. It’s a sanctuary, a place I want to come back to every evening. It isn’t industrial or commercial looking. She has filled the house with comfortable furniture, soft throw pillows, and matching rugs and blankets.
All areas of the house look loved and lived in. My room, on the other hand, looks dismal, just as it did the day I moved in. It’s functional at best, but I can’t ask her to decora—design—a better room for me. It’s too personal. It would make her realize that I want her touches in here as well. I’d end up with more than a week of her disappearing the second I get home. Making that confession would probably end up with her running for the hills, and that’s the last thing I want.
She needs distance and space, but it’s clear her body still craves mine with the way she leans her head back on my shoulder, exposing her neck to me.