Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
She was standing at the bar a couple feet away with a girl I didn’t recognize. “Hey, Tawny,” I called, and she turned around, her eyes lighting up.
She walked over to me and met me right in front of Grace’s chair. “Carson!” she squealed, kissing my cheek and pressing her large breasts into my chest.
I smiled suggestively at her. “Hey, baby, how are you?” I asked, pulling her into me and gripping her ass.
“I’m great, gorgeous. I heard you had a family emergency. Anything I can help with?” She ran one finger down my chest.
“Maybe. What did you have in mind?”
“I’m sure I could think of something.” She giggled. “But I thought you didn’t mix business with pleasure.”
“I might be able to make an exception for you,” I said, raising my eyebrows and squeezing her ass tighter.
That’s when Grace cleared her throat, and me and Tawny both turned our heads to see her standing there with her shoes and cover-up on and her bag on her shoulder, looking for us to move so she could get by us.
“Who’s she, Carson?” Tawny demanded.
“She’s no one, babe,” I said, and the look that came over Grace’s face nearly brought me to my knees. She looked like I had just slapped her in the face and kicked her while she was down. I felt that look like a punch in the gut. Shit.
Grace didn’t wait for us to move but instead pushed past us, knocking Tawny off balance. “Watch it, girlie!” Tawny said angrily.
Grace didn’t even look back. Shit, shit, shit.
“Anyway,” Tawny said, turning back to me and taking my hand and replacing it on her ass, “where were we?”
I was such a stupid fuckup. Holy Christ. What had I done? I was so fucking hurt when she made me feel like an embarrassment, like a nothing in front of her friend. I had automatically reacted, trying to make her feel the same way too. And I’d succeeded. And I felt like shit. “Sorry, Tawny, I gotta go,” I said, taking her by the shoulders and physically moving her out of my way.
“Wait, what? I thought we were gonna hang out!”
“You were right,” I said over my shoulder. “I don’t mix business with pleasure. I almost forgot for a minute there.”
I jogged in the direction Grace had gone, looking around and finally spotting her going through the door to the hotel. I raced after her.
When I got inside, I ran to the elevators, hoping to find her waiting for one. I had fucked up. Jesus, I had fucked up. My heart pounded and I broke out in sweat even though I’d run into the air conditioned building. I flashed my room card to the guard and pressed the up button furiously, swearing under my breath. When the elevator finally came, I jumped on and when a few people tried to follow me in, I held my hand up and said, “Sorry! Emergency! No one else is gonna ride this elevator!” They stepped back, confused, as I pushed Grace’s room floor. No one else was gonna slow me down in getting to her. Panic coursed through me. Shit, I did this. I fucking did this.
When the elevator doors opened, I leaped from the car and raced down the hallways and as I turned the corner, I saw Grace almost at her door, just removing her key card. When she heard me behind her, she turned, her mouth opening slightly, eyes widening. The hurt was still clear in her large, blue eyes.
She turned back around to her door.
“I’m sorry, Grace,” I said desperately.
She halted, her back still to me. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. You obviously have a life. I got in the way of it for a minute there. Please, don’t let me interrupt the plans you have with Tawny.”
“I don’t have any plans with Tawny. I did that because I didn’t like what happened with Parker. It made me feel like nothing and I wanted to do the same to you. I wanted to make you feel like nothing too. It wasn’t fair and I fucked up, and I’m sorry.”
She studied me for a minute. “I understand. I’m sorry too. But this”—she gestured between me and her—“isn’t going to work. Not even for a weekend. I’ve had a nice time. But we both need to get back to our real lives. We don’t make any kind of sense and this is just a recipe for disaster.”
She slid her key in the slot at her door, and when I heard the click indicating that it was open and she was about to go inside, my heart leaped with panic and I took a step forward. “No one else has ever made me feel the way you do,” I blurted. She paused and then turned toward me slowly, her hand dropping from the door. “Not even close,” I went on. “Shit, I don’t even know what to call it because it’s totally unfamiliar. And down by the pool, it scared me, Grace, and I reacted. But it’s because you are far from nothing to me.” I took another step forward. “You are far from nothing to me,” I repeated.