Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 565(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
His eyes twinkled as he peered into my mouth. “Yes. It looks quite fime. Fime indeed.”
Bear shifted his weight, accidentally drawing my attention to the front of his running tights again. I tried not to stare as I cleared my throat. “I should, ah, get dressed. So… so we can eat. Sausage. So we can cook. Sausage. And then, um. Eat it. With the other stuff. Mixed in.”
He tilted his head at me, his lips now smirking to match the twinkle in his eyes. At least one of us was enjoying ourselves.
“What’s happening right now?” he asked.
I want to suck your cock again.
“Nothing,” I said in a high-pitched voice, shaking my head to dispel the intrusive thought. “Nothing at all. I’m fine.”
“Yes. Fine. Excellent,” he said drily. “Then I’ll wait for you in the kitchen while you get dressed. Sorry about the noise earlier.”
“No problem,” I said with excessive cheer as I escorted him out of the room and closed the door behind him.
I turned my back to the door and sank to the floor. “Jesus fuck.”
Maybe the reason I’d never had a boyfriend in all these years wasn’t really because of Noelle’s strictures. Maybe Noelle’s scary advice had actually saved me from making a colossal fool out of myself in front of men.
Because if this was the way I was around men I liked, I was in a heap ton of trouble.
I took my time getting dressed, mostly because halfway through, I gave up the fight and jerked off in the bathroom to images of Bear’s junk crammed in running tights. When I finally emerged from my room, I was much more relaxed and ready to face the day, even though I knew I was sporting a beet-red face.
“So, I chopped everything up,” Bear said as I came into the kitchen. “But I didn’t trust myself to brown the meat without your help.”
The scent of coffee filled the air, and warm sunlight slanted in through the large number of windows in the open space. As I approached the coffee maker, he pointed to a mug already poured and ready for me. “Get a few sips down, but then I need you to help me get this going. It says it has to go in the oven for twenty minutes, and I’m starving.”
I did as he said, secretly giddy that he’d made my coffee exactly the way I liked it. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, but the thrill of being cared for never went away. My life hadn’t been the kind that had included pampering or spoiling of any kind. Yes, my gran loved me, always had. But she’d also worked hard raising or half raising grandkids, supporting her own kids when they went through stages of high need, and holding down various jobs to keep food on the table. There hadn’t been time, money, or energy left at the end of the day to pamper anyone.
Which was why this simple gesture meant the world to me.
I took the first sip as I began talking him through the process of browning the sausage. He’d already preheated the oven and had everything else prepped on the counter.
“How do you know how to do this stuff?” he asked as I moved around him to hand him various spices and instruct him on how much to add.
“Gran made all of us learn. We had to do our share growing up. She was especially diligent with me and JK since she insisted men needed to be helpful to their wives.”
We shared a snicker over that. “Your poor nonexistent wife,” he teased. “Doesn’t know what she’s missing.”
“I would have been a hell of a husband,” I joked. “Always gone.”
“Making millions,” he added.
“Always exhausted.”
“Beloved by the world,” Bear pointed out.
I made a joke to cover my discomfort. “Always dreaming about sucking dick.”
He laughed. “Ah, therein lies the rub.”
“Poor wife.”
“I believe you mean poor Carrie-Beth,” he tossed back with a smirk before adding the drained sausage to the rest of the ingredients.
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
Bear bounced his eyebrows at me. “You touched her boob once. She’s clearly never forgotten. It must have been epic. She’s fantasized about becoming Mrs. Hendley and having mini Hendleys ever since.”
“Barlos, more like,” I tossed out, not really meaning much by it. But the correction erased Bear’s teasing grin.
“Yeah, probably. Sorry. I hate that for you.”
I shrugged. “I’m used to it. It’s fine.”
He slid the casserole dish into the oven and set a timer on his phone before walking up to me and putting his hands on my sides. He lifted me up and set me on the counter before pushing between my legs and wrapping his arms around my back. “Why do you do that?”
Bear was so close. So tempting. I wanted to do so many things. Kiss him wildly. Bury my face in his chest and simply breathe him in. Ask him if we could get naked in bed and spend the rest of the day fucking.