Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
I can see what’s happening so clearly. It should make me warm to him. He’s trying to help Mom overcome her abandonment hangups. Yet every time I look at him, I wish Dad was sitting there instead. Still, I should try. “Thanks, Mark.”
“Just the two of you?” Mom says. “All alone out there?”
“Mom, it’s a property owned by Lukas Larson. I’m sure it has security.”
When I think about Lukas, I get this sort of, I don’t know, this weird feeling—an inappropriate feeling. That’s why I always shut it down straight away. I stomp on it hard. I won’t let my thoughts go there—ever. That’s that. Kayla and I are too close for me to entertain that sort of craziness.
“Well…” Mom leans forward, still talking loud but forcing a smile. “I think you’ll have a great time.”
And she’s right. We do. We spend the day in the indoor pool and later play board games.
Then I wake up, make myself a coffee in the shiny, expensive machine, and happen to look out the window.
That’s when I see him—all of him.
CHAPTER 3
LUKAS
Igrab a towel from the hook and wrap it around myself, then sit on one of the poolside chairs, rubbing my hands down on the towel and grabbing my phone. I’ve got ten emails that need a response and about a hundred others I can afford to push to the back burner until the VR stuff is dealt with.
Swimming naked always brings me a feral sense of freedom. Like I’m a wild man, not a CEO, and all I have to worry about is the next stroke, the motion of the water around me. Not all the responsibility that is weighing me down. Not all the self-pity that threatens to cling to me. Goddamn it. I’m sitting next to one of my two pools on this property and a house I don’t live in full-time. I seriously need to get some perspective.
I pause when I hear the tapping on the glass. Turning, I see Maci, a shopping bag in one hand, waving with the other. A smile spreads across my face, the morbid feeling leaving me.
“Kayla?” I yell, grinning.
She slides the door open. “I thought you’d still be in the city,” she says, dropping her bag and walking over.
She leans down, hugging me. I kiss her on the forehead.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Maci and I decided to have a little getaway,” she says. “Wait a sec… Were you swimming—”
I swallow. “Uh, yeah. I didn’t know you were here.”
“Thank God I was out,” she says, laughing, “and Maci was asleep.”
“Yeah, I don’t think Marcy needs to see that.”
“It’s Maci,” Kayla says, rolling her eyes. “Don’t worry. I won’t give you too much crap about that. I’m pretty sure you’ve been at work every time she’s come over in the past, what, few years, maybe? I know you’ve been busy.”
“Maci,” I say, nodding. “I know. I remember. I was just testing you.”
She laughs, making all this hard work worthwhile. There were times when I thought she was going to fall under her mother’s spell, and her mother might even try to get our baby addicted to the same filth as she was.
“Have you had breakfast?” she asks.
“Not yet.”
“Just give me a chance to get dressed, and I’ll whip up something to eat.” She gestures down at her PJs that she must have worn to the store.
“Great. I’ll shower real quick.”
She goes into the house. I wrap my towel tightly around myself and walk to the sauna room, quickly showering and changing into fresh house clothes. We’ve got no staff out here, nobody to disturb us. It’s one reason I didn’t know Kayla was here. They would’ve told me. Now that she is here, I wonder if I should call my security detail. Sometimes, it’s good to pretend we’re a normal family.
When I walk into the kitchen, I pause, staring at the woman sitting at the counter. What the hell? Kayla said it was just her and her friend here, right? Is this Maci? The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen sits at the counter. She’s wearing a tank top that shows the outline of her bra underneath like she’s tempting me to tear away the fabric and reveal her curviness. Her body is so full and thick. Her hair is long and brown, wavy, and messy from sleep. I want to run my hand through it. I need to. My heart is pounding.
Her shorts show her bare, curvy legs. I clench my fist, imagining I’m squeezing onto her body instead, imagining the sound of desire she’d make.
“Hi, Mr. Larson,” she says.
“Uh… hi.” I look around the room like I’m searching for an escape.
“Kayla’s just freshening up.”
“Right.”
I walk to the coffee machine, wondering why Maci’s cheeks are so flushed. She looks like she’s burning up. “Coffee?” I ask.