Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
“What were you and Julia whispering about?” I asked.
He smirked and shrugged. “Secret.”
I narrowed my eyes.
He lowered his mouth to the surface of the water and swam closer. “Here’s a subtle topic change. I can’t stop thinking about last night. Kissing you…having you inside me…”
Subtle, perhaps not, but effective.
“I should’ve kissed you weeks ago.” Fuck, I wanted to touch him, but if I knew Cathryn, she was keeping an eye on us.
Some confidence left Peyton’s eyes. “Why didn’t you? You don’t strike me as a man who’d chicken out—like I’ve done. I was too much of a coward to initiate it. I kept thinking, maybe it’s too intimate for him, maybe he reserves that for real relationships…”
I didn’t want him to think any of those things. It bothered me more than I thought it would. So, I supposed we were having this conversation right here and right now. Fine by me.
“First of all, what you and I have is real,” I told him quietly but seriously. “Secondly, it wasn’t intentional at first—not consciously anyway. I do like catching you off guard, and a kiss is usually what you begin with.”
Heat bled across his cheeks. I hoped he was remembering the night he came into my bedroom at home and watched me masturbate, because that was a memory I wouldn’t change for anything.
“It felt natural and exciting to explore your body first.” I was hopeless. Even here, this second, it was turning me on to the point where I had to adjust my cock. “Then I thought more and more about it when we got to the islands. It became the piece that was missing.”
He nodded slowly and circled me.
I twisted my body to face him, and I pushed my hair back. “But perhaps I’m not as brave as you might believe, because when we visited the private beach and you expressed gratitude for the adventure I was giving you, chickening out was essentially what I did. It gave me a reality check—that this was possibly just fun for you. So, I decided to wait a while as I got my wits about me.”
“Oh.” He furrowed his brow. “Did you get your wits about you?”
I shook my head.
“And what does not getting your wits about you entail, exactly?”
I grinned softly at his endearing apprehension. He wouldn’t make direct eye contact at the moment, finding the bottom of the pool a seemingly interesting spot to stare at.
“It entails quite a bit,” I admitted. “For instance, thinking about you constantly. Wanting to know everything about you. Waking up with you next to me.” Nervousness tightened my gut as quickly as it disappeared when he met my gaze with hope and relief in his eyes. “Taking you out to dinner.” His hand found mine under the surface, and I pulled him a little closer. “Kissing you in public.”
He exhaled shakily and slid a hand up on my back. With the sun beating down on my shoulders and neck, his touch was cold and shiver-inducing.
“Making you mine in every sense of the word,” I finished. My heart started beating faster at the reminder of how publicly I was declaring this. He needed to know the seriousness of everything before I kissed him. “Is this something you’re interested in?”
He let out a breathy laugh and shook his head. “You have no idea.”
My heart kept hammering as the euphoria coursed through me. “I won’t involve my daughter in anything that isn’t serious.”
He nodded once, a quick one in understanding. “I don’t know how to explain what I feel without freaking you out, but you haven’t left my mind since the day you walked into the International and asked about recruiting me.” He swallowed and wet his bottom lip. “I guess there’s only one contender.” And when he flicked a glance toward Julia, it made my whole day. “You’ve both turned my world upside down.”
I closed my eyes in contentment and pressed my forehead to his.
“Can we go out soon?” he asked hesitantly. “I have some things I’d like to get off my chest, and I don’t want to get my hopes up in case you hear something that changes anything for you.”
I opened my eyes again and frowned in confusion.
“I haven’t been open about…” He trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. It’s just bugging me.”
“What could possibly change how I feel about us?” I asked.
“My background?” He phrased it as a question for some reason. “It doesn’t look good to begin with, and less so if I start dating my multimillionaire boss.”
Oh, for heaven’s sake.
I cupped his cheeks and made him face me. “Peyton, I hired you without even looking at your resumé. Do you honestly believe I give a shit about image?”
“Maybe not, but—”
“No buts.” I closed the distance and kissed him firmly. “We’ll have dinner tomorrow, just you and me. A proper date. But don’t think for a second that you need to have a fucking pedigree to date me. I’ve run away from that lifestyle once already.”