Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
I glared at him.
He glared right back.
Oh My God. The light from a passing car lit his face, and there it was. Number thirteen. His angry eyes were exactly the color of number thirteen. I used to have to peel the paper off Cadet Blue in the Crayola sixty-four pack before the other crayons had even lost their points. I liked it so much, it wasn’t just the color I’d shaded the sky. There was a whole year of my life when all the faces in my coloring books were that beautiful blue with a mysterious touch of gray. I’d never seen the color in real life on anything, especially not eyes.
I was half gone. And then he took the other half.
“Aubrey.” He stepped forward
AH-BREE.
Damn him. I didn’t say a word. I was busy…processing.
“I was trying to help. Harry needed that. I don’t know who he is to you, but whoever he is, he’s obviously done you wrong. And you don’t want to hear his apologies anymore. They’re bullshit, and you know it. Let him stew on the thought of you taking a trip with another man for a while. Woman like you, he should know men would be circling. Shouldn’t need reminding.”
Woman like me?
I tried to keep up the façade of being pissed off, but I just wasn’t feeling it anymore. “Well, don’t touch my phone again.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
I nodded, needing to feel some sense of victory. I couldn’t just let go of my anger because he had a sexy voice and number thirteen eyes. Could I?
“How about I drive for a while?”
My night vision wasn’t great to begin with, and I was starting to get a little blurry eyed. “Okay.”
He opened the passenger side door and waited for me to get in, then closed it and jogged around to the other side. Before slipping into the driver’s seat, he bent down and picked something up from the street, dropping it into his bag in the back before adjusting the seat where he wanted it.
“What did you pick up?”
“Nothing.” He blew off my question. “Driver picks the music.” We pulled away from the curb.
“You changed the station every five minutes while I was driving.”
He shrugged and smiled. “It’s a new rule.”
Being in the passenger seat gave me an opportunity to study him. God those dimples were deep. And the bit of stubble starting to shadow his chiseled jaw worked for me. Really worked. There was a good chance he’d be driving an awful lot.
Three hours later, it was almost midnight when we decided to stop for the day. We’d made it as far as I’d planned, even with having to waste a few hours getting a new tire.
The woman at the reception desk of the hotel was busy playing a game on her phone and barely looked up at us when we approached.
“We’d like a room for tonight, please?” Chance said.
“Ummm…two rooms, please,” I clarified.
“What? I was going to get one with two beds.”
“I am not sharing a room with you.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.” And turned his attention back to the front desk clerk. “She’s afraid if we room together, she won’t be able to keep her hands off of me.” He winked at her. She had dark skin, but I could see her blush anyway.
I rolled my eyes, too tired to fight with him again and spoke to the clerk, “Can you make my room facing west, not on the ground floor, and an even number, if possible?”
“I’d like mine with a bed, toilet and television, if that’s possible.” He grinned, bating me.
“I can give you rooms 217 and 218. They’re right next to each other.”
“Perfect. She likes to be close to me.”
I wasn’t sure if his egomaniacal sense of humor was growing on me or if I was just slap happy from so many hours in the car, but I actually laughed a little.
He looked pleased.
The clerk handed us our keys along with a warm chocolate chip cookie each. On our way to the elevator, I offered him mine. “Want my cookie? I’m not going to eat it.”
“Sure. I’ll eat you.”
“What did you just say?”
“I said I’d eat yours.”
I really needed to get some sleep. And perhaps a nice cold shower.
He toted both our overnight bags to our rooms, and it wasn’t lost on me that he let me in and out of the elevator before him. Cocky Bastard had manners to go with his arrogance.
“Night, Princess.”
“Night, Cocky.”
I was glad he didn’t say my name; I was bothered enough just sleeping next door to him.
Fifteen minutes later, I’d completed my bedtime ritual and slipped into bed. I took a deep breath in and out and let myself sink into the softness of the mattress.
A knock at the door made me jump.
With a huff, I got out of bed and stood on my tiptoes to look out the peephole. Why were those things always so high on the door anyway? I was surprised to find no one standing on the other side. Maybe I’d imagined it.