Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“So you said.” Her fingers raced across the keyboard, not pausing for even a beat.
“I know there is nothing I can do to take it back.” I had a flashback of that morning at the kitchen sink, my cock buried deep inside her. She had been so sweet and inviting back then, ready to do anything to please me. I wanted to find that angel again, to unwrap the pain that had been wound around her heart and set her free. I knew I just had to have patience. She had yet to say anything to make me think that all was lost.
Aly finally set her work aside and looked up at me. “Now is not the time.”
“Have dinner with me,” I pleaded.
“I don’t think so,” she answered, going back to work.
“Did you like the Italian?” I asked, not accepting her dismissal.
She actually smiled, even though her focus remained on the computer. “Yes.”
“Did I get the order right?”
“It was a big lunch,” she admitted. “I had some left over for dinner.”
“And the flowers?” I asked.
She turned to me then, all anger discarded in a moment of curiosity. “Did you walk to my house?”
“I did.”
“Both ways?”
“It was farther than I thought,” I admitted. “I made it to the diner around four in the morning and waited for Danny to pick me up.”
She looked down at her keyboard. “How’s your leg?”
“It was unhappy, but I didn’t care.” I answered, daring to hope that this was the beginning of our reconciliation. “It’s recovered by now. But I’m not. I miss you.”
Her eyes flashed at the reveal of my feelings. “Okay,” she said with a sigh.
“Okay?” I repeated, making sure I had heard her right.
“Okay, I’ll have dinner with you.”
I couldn’t help making a fist in celebration, as if I had bowled a strike or won the jackpot. She saw me and smiled again, returning to her work with determination. I allowed myself one more lingering glance. I loved the way her hair swept across her shoulders. I knew the feel of it, bunched up in my hand as I rocked toward a climax inside her. I knew how it looked fanned out on the pillow as she slept.
Taking that image with me, I turned to go, breaking out the front door with triumph in my stride.
26
ALY
Damn him for being so charming. I wanted to hate him after what he did to me. Not only did he take advantage of my feelings for him, but he shut the metaphorical door in my face when I had only wanted love. I should burn pictures of him or create a voodoo doll to take my anger out on. Yet, there he was, standing in my office, acting all penitent. All the while, he was stealing looks at me that made my insides quiver.
I knew what he was thinking, and damn my traitorous body for playing along.
If I had been my own girlfriend, I would have cautioned myself against accepting his apology. I hadn’t technically accepted, but I had agreed to go out on another date with him. I decided I needed a real girlfriend to talk to, not just myself. Over my lunch break, I called Gina.
“Hi, do you have a minute?” I had locked myself in the bathroom. If anyone needed to pee in the next ten minutes, they were going to have to go down to the barn.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Gina asked.
“Linc asked me to dinner.”
Gina gasped. “What did you say?”
“I said yes,” I admitted, almost cringing in anticipation of her response.
“That’s wonderful,” she said.
“Do you think so?”
“Yes,” Gina said, putting her foot down and cutting off all avenues of self-doubt. “I know he cares about you. He made a stupid mistake, but that’s not who he is.”
“How can I possibly trust him ever again?” I wondered, pacing from the sink to the window and back.
“Of course, you can’t trust him right away, but there has to be some middle ground.”
“Like what?”
“If he is afraid of marriage, maybe there is some kind of commitment he can offer. Porter and I aren’t going to get married. That just isn’t something that we want to do. But we’re both comfortable with that.”
“I don’t think Linc would want to share a house, or a car, or even a dog.” Now I was talking myself out of the dinner date.
Gina sighed. “Just try to meet him where he is.”
“But what if that’s not enough?”
“I think he’s ready for more than just casual dating,” Gina responded.
“Did he tell you that?”
“No,” she admitted. “But he’s hanging around. If he wanted to escape, there’s nothing stopping him.”
“So just because he didn’t quit his job and run away, that means he’s ready for a real relationship?” I tried the logic and found that it didn’t sit right. There was a lot of space between fleeing town and getting married.