Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81518 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
I wanted to get involved out here too. They’d done a lot for me already.
“Okay.” I nodded, suddenly flushed with excitement. “My brothers go back to school soon, so I want to be there for them when they come home in the afternoon, but then I can come back out here.”
He cradled my face in his hands and kissed me hard.
“One more thing,” I mumbled against his lips. “I’m not sleeping in the fucking subbie bed.”
He chuckled. “Fuck no, you’re not.”
One might’ve hoped to wake up the next morning to a round of morning sex and pillow talk.
In reality, someone woke up a little before nine o’clock to two notes, and that someone was me.
River was out buying us breakfast, and Reese was “in the office,” this mystery place I still hadn’t seen.
I woke up feeling weirdly reenergized, so I figured I could start my day with a swim. Because if I was actually going to stay here a few weeks, I had to get back to working out regularly. I may only have one fight night a week, but I didn’t get confident in winning—or deciding the outcome, rather—by lying around and being lazy.
I had to buy some trunks next time we were out. For now, I’d go with my briefs.
I didn’t have to ask Reese why he’d opted for briefs instead of boxer briefs. He’d torn up my ass good and proper last night when seeing me in a pair of them.
As I left the cabin, I noticed Tate was in the pool too. Well, he was sitting on the edge with his feet in the water, at least. But he was dressed to go in.
He looked like he was a million miles away in his head. He still hadn’t noticed me when I was ten feet away.
Should I just ignore him? I’d ignored both him and Penelope yesterday.
“Good morning,” I said politely, albeit quietly.
He jumped slightly and glanced up at me over his shoulder. “Oh. Sorry. Good morning.”
“I didn’t mean to intrude.” I dropped my phone in the lounger I usually shared with the twins. There were already three folded towels on the table, so maybe Reese had plans for us to stay here at some point today.
“You didn’t,” Tate responded absently.
I side-eyed him and walked over the last few feet to the wide stairs in the corner of the pool. He was lost in thought again, and I didn’t know him well enough to prod. Did I? We’d just talked a little at a few munches. I knew he was a sadomasochist and a switch. He was heavily inked—though not anywhere near my level—he worked…with children, if I wasn’t mistaken, and he was together with someone named…something. I should remember.
On the other hand, the extent you knew someone in this community evidently didn’t matter.
I hissed under my breath as I headed into the water. It was going to be another hot and humid day, but the water hadn’t warmed up yet.
I noticed the pool cleaner near my feet. The little robot vacuum must’ve been working through the night, ’cause I didn’t see any dirt or dead bugs.
“Is it cold?” Tate asked.
“Depends if you’re asking me or my balls.” I winced and cupped my junk under the water. “It’s all right.” You got used to it quickly, which I bet his legs agreed with. They were still submerged up to his calves. This end of the pool was only like four feet deep, and I had no intention of leaving it. The other end was six feet at the deepest. “By the way, are you okay?”
“Hmm?” He dragged his gaze off the surface of the water. “Oh. Yeah. I don’t know. I mean—I’ll be fine.” He gripped the edge of the pool and slowly lowered himself into the water. Kind of impossible not to notice the definition of his abs and biceps.
He was a few years older than me, and he managed to look both youthful and a bit rugged. His neatly trimmed beard played a part.
“Can I ask you something?” He grimaced when his midsection was submerged too.
“Shoot.” I crouched down in the water so my shoulders were under the surface.
“You have a thing going on with the Tenley twins now, right?”
“Sort of.” I nodded. “It’s new. We haven’t discussed it much yet.”
Tate smirked faintly. “They have some interesting boundaries. A former friend of mine fell for them a couple years ago and wanted the whole shebang—love, kink, a closed triad. The twins wouldn’t budge an inch, so my buddy stormed out and left the community. Fun times.”
“They do have a very, uh, passionate following online.” I chuckled awkwardly and scratched my nose. “I’m not looking for anything like that, though. It’s just kink.”
A voice in the back of my head called me a bullshitter, all while the rest of me reasoned that it was smart to stick to just kink. River and Reese were dangerous as it was.