Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 17808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 89(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
And that didn’t count the time we spent together at Extra Shot. I was still going there regularly. He would play around with me and flirt like he always did. He called me his favorite customer and would teasingly ask what I was working on. I’m writing sex and wishing I was having it with you.
Outside of that, he would come and sit with me on his break. He’d bring me an extra treat or a drink, and he literally put a reserved sign on the table I liked every evening. What life was this? It sure as shit couldn’t be mine. I had yet to make sense of any of it.
All I knew was I liked him more and more, and for some mind-boggling reason, Ronan Winters seemed to like me too. Or maybe he didn’t—at least not in more than a friend way—and that was why there’d been no sex…or kissing…but there had been cuddling. I’d held his hand only once—on our first date—and another time, he’d wrapped an arm around me, pulling me to him while we watched a documentary on bees.
I still couldn’t get over what he’d shared with me that first night, though. The story about his family discovering he was gay and how he’d been let down by someone right before that. I didn’t know what had happened, but I hated the guy who’d hurt him. Ronan was a good man and should never have had to feel abandoned.
I was proud of him for how he’d made the best of the situation, taking pride in himself and letting it lead him to the path he was on today. We’d had similar lives growing up, but I was grateful every day my parents had chosen me and changed their ways. Ronan deserved better than what he got. He made me want to do better, be better and stronger because of the way he strangely believed in me.
BoyToy5600: You ask your secret crush to go skinny-dipping with you yet?
I thought about ignoring the question on the H2H message board but knew BoyToy wouldn’t stop until I responded. He’d been consistently bugging me for weeks.
WordsAreLife: No! God, I suck. I don’t know why I haven’t. I guess…if he wanted to see me naked, wouldn’t he have made a move by now?
BoyToy5600: Maybe he’s thinking the same thing about you. DO IT. You’re the one who needs to step out of your comfort zone here. You’re the one who has never skinny-dipped. Take the damn bull by the horns and ask that man to get naked with you, both in bed and out of it.
I laughed. He was right. I was so going to do this!
WordsAreLife: I will. Soon.
I logged off before he could say anything else.
Ronan and I were going on a date that night. It would be the perfect opportunity for me to bring up skinny-dipping, but it felt…silly. This was a man who talked about sex and sexual freedom on his podcast, while here I was, a twenty-six-year-old man who was nervous to go skinny-dipping with him.
Deep down, I knew Ronan would never make me feel stupid about it. That wasn’t him. This was all me and my insecurities. I sure wished I didn’t have so many of them.
He arrived at my apartment right on time. I smiled when I heard the knock, which was already—and ridiculously—familiar. I’d been hanging out with him outside of Extra Shot for just a few weeks, and I already thought I knew his knock? I was so glad no one knew some of the things that went on inside my head. Sometimes I thought like some of the characters in my novels.
I opened the door, and Ronan stood there looking gorgeous as always—dark hair and brown eyes, tight T-shirt showing off his body, and a cocky grin. “What are you doing here?” fell from my mouth.
“We have a date, don’t we?”
“Yeah, but I mean, why? You’re gorgeous. What are you doing with me?” As soon as my words computed, I wanted to slam the door and lock myself in my apartment for…I didn’t know, eternity. I could make it work if I could live off what I made writing books and had groceries delivered. “Never mind. Forget I said that. How about them Browns?”
Ronan chuckled. “You’re adorable and sexy and your personality is all right too.”
He winked. I blushed. “You’re adorable too…you know, but hotter. Adorable-hot? Sexy-adorable? I don’t know. You’re all of them.”
Ronan laughed again, then stepped forward, cupped my cheek, and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “You’re so goddamned fun. You ask what I’m doing here? With you? I’m exactly where I want to be.”
“Me too.” I closed my eyes, savored the feel of him, hoped this could be real. It felt real, but more than that, it felt monumental, inevitable, which I knew made zero sense.