Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
He slid his hand off of my thigh and already I missed its warmth. “Sorry if I acted weird,” he said. “I’m not going to lie, I thought you were flirting right back, to be honest.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t step in and try to make a move on him.”
“What?” Rush said, making a face like he’d just eaten a lemon. “I wouldn’t want him.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “The Rush I knew would have pounced on a hot guy like Patrick from moment one. I actually don’t even know if he’s gay or not, but I do think you’re onto something about the flirting.”
“Regardless of his orientation, he definitely likes you,” Rush said. “Because you’re hot as hell. Who wouldn’t want you?”
I looked out the passenger side window at the rain falling in rivulets on the glass. “This flirting stuff is so confusing.”
“You’re telling me. This dating stuff is confusing.”
He shifted in his seat, leaning over so that he was close to me. He nuzzled into my hair and I relaxed against him, holding him near me. Moments like this were so easy. I could hold him close to me forever, and feel perfectly at home.
But my mind still swirled with the confusion of how I could have missed the mark so completely with Patrick. Was I supposed to flirt with guys more, or less? What did Rush want, now that his “trial run” of exclusivity was up?
And how could he possibly think I’d want anyone but him?
“How did you do it, back in San Francisco?” I asked softly. “Dating multiple people at once?”
He paused for a moment, leaning back a couple of inches so that he could look into my eyes. His eyes were deep as oceans in that moment, and in the silence I got lost in them, looking at the tiny flecks of darker blue.
“Well, it didn’t usually feel like this,” he finally said, his voice low. He traced his thumb over my lower lip, moving toward my jaw.
My heart rate quickened. “Like what?”
“Like getting jealous of a dude flirting with someone. I’ve never been jealous before. Not with anyone else.”
I swallowed hard. “Right.”
“And you’re right about me, too,” he said. “In the past, I would have hopped right in and flirted with a guy like him.”
I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling like the air inside the car was electrically charged. Like the inches of air between us were hypercharged, ready to explode at any moment. “So… what does that mean?”
“It means I do want you to be mine. All in. Really mine,” he interjected, and I felt like I was swaying a little. The rain was coming down in buckets now outside. Rush and I were in a cocoon together inside the car.
Sharing this.
This thing that had seemed completely impossible just months ago.
“Yours? Like, in the same way you say I’m yours every time you’re inside me and every time you kiss me?”
He closed his eyes, shaking his head gently before looking at me again.
“I want to be… your boyfriend,” he said, as if it were the strangest thing he’d ever said—but very confidently, without hesitation.
I let the words hang in the air for a moment. The rain pelting the car was the only sound around us. I was still catching up, and I thought it might be a long time before I ever could. Fuck, for all I knew, maybe I’d never be able to.
“You want me to be your boyfriend, or you just don’t want me to fuck anyone else?” I asked. “Because I know you’re not really a boyfriend kind of guy, but apparently you can get a little possessive—”
“I want you to be my boyfriend,” he said, his voice resolute. “In every sense of it.”
“Like—”
“Like I want us to only date each other, with no time limit on it,” he told me. “Like I want to take you out on dates, just the two of us. Like I want to exchange stupid flowers and chocolates and massages on Valentine’s Day, and wake up next to you, and hopefully have your lips around my cock as often as humanly possible.”
I could feel a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. “Robert Taylor Rushing,” I said slowly. “Never, in a million years, did I think…”
He groaned, moving in even closer to me and burying his head at the crook of my neck. “Fuck, you are going to make fun of me about this for a long time, aren’t you?”
“Make fun of you? No,” I said, clutching him against me. I felt like I was in free fall, like I’d just leaped off a cliff into the sea. But in a good way. A very, very good way. “But I am going to call you out for ragging on Valentine’s Day chocolates. Because I fucking love chocolate, and I’ll always love it, no matter what day it is.”