Total pages in book: 227
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
“So there’s more to it.”
“Definitely. Did either of you know Doc went on a date last night?” Danny asks, doing a complete one-eighty on subject matter.
“Oh, behave,” I say over a laugh. “Doc on a date?”
“I’m telling you,” Danny says, eyes between me in the rearview mirror and the road. “He met an old colleague while out and about and they reconnected.”
Great. So I got no penetration because the old boy was getting some himself?
Danny looks up at the mirror at me with high eyebrows. “Mum said he met her at a clinic. I expect that’s where he took your piss sample for testing.”
My mouth opens to tell him to fuck off, and my fist bunches ready to punch him. James looks at me in the mirror of the sun visor. “What’s wrong with your piss?”
Jesus Christ. “Doc thinks I’ve got a water infection.” Both of their brows hitch higher. Oh for fuck’s sake. “I’ve had some tests done, okay?”
“Why?” they both ask.
“Just because.” I slam my back into the seat, silently daring either of them to laugh.
“You cover up, though, right?” Danny asks.
“Of course I do.” I grimace. There’s been the odd occasion when alcohol or plain lust has got in the way of condoms, but I always made sure birth control was in place. Always.
“Really?”
“Look, I’m a thirty-five-year-old man who’s . . .” How do I put this?
“A manwhore that needs to check the lady whores haven’t left anything behind?”
That’s it. I launch my fist into Danny’s bicep, and he swerves into the next lane, getting honked at by a truck.
“You fucker,” he yells, abandoning the wheel and practically throwing himself into the back between the seats. I’m pinned to the leather, his psycho face up in mine, his teeth bared. “I’ve got a dead fucking arm.” He pulls his head back and headbutts me.
“Fuck!” I yelp, water bursting from my eyes, blood from my nose. “Jesus Christ.” I grab his arms and haul him into the door, extending my leg fast and kicking him in the gut.
He instantly retches, holding his stomach. “You wanker,” he says, coughing. “That was uncalled for.”
“Stop pissing me off,” I mutter, my breathing labored, running the back of my hand across my bloody nose. I look up and find James has somehow managed to get his big body over the center console into the driving seat. “You could have killed us all.”
Danny huffs, settling back on his side of the car. “I already feel dead from lack of sleep.”
“Another bad night?” James asks, looking at us both in the rearview mirror.
“It was better, actually,” Danny says. “After I’d rocked her for fifteen minutes. Turns out she’s a Michael Kiwanuka fan. She slept for five hours straight.”
“And Rose?” I ask, daring to go there.
“Rose is Rose.” He smiles to himself, looking out of the window at the freeway whizzing past. “Brilliantly strong while being heartbreakingly fragile.”
I smile. Sounds familiar.
“So you’re having a sexual overhaul to make sure you’re clean for the lawyer?” Danny asks, snapping out of his wistful musings of his wife and turning his attention back to me.
“Sounds sensible,” James pipes in.
Okay. Enough about me and my recently born consideration for the woman I’m sleeping with. “When’s Otto popping the question?”
“Don’t know,” Danny replies quickly. “So, answer me this.”
“What?”
“Has the lawyer pushed for these tests?”
“What?”
“Am I speaking Chinese again?”
I look at James, like he can help me, but he appears interested too. “No, she hasn’t. I don’t know why you two are making such a big deal of the lawyer. I’m fucking her.”
“And when are you planning on telling her you live life one step away from America’s Most Wanted list?”
“Did you invite me along just to piss me off?”
He grins. “Always.”
“I’m just fucking her.” What the fuck am I saying? I should be speaking some truths. Tell them it wasn’t Allison in my bed this morning.
“And your little crush on Pearl isn’t a thing anymore?”
I look at him in horror. Speak! “It was never a thing,” I grate, incensed. Crush? Fuck, would I love it to be just a crush.
“So you don’t want to fuck her anymore?”
Fuck, yes, I want to fuck her every minute of every day. “I’m going to smash your fucking face in again, Danny,” I warn, and he holds his hands up.
“Just checking.” He goes back to James. “Do you think you could convince Beau to go to St. Lucia?”
I exhale, the heat off. What the fuck am I going to tell them? I’m just fucking her? No. It’s more than fucking. I think. Is it? I frown to myself, my hand automatically going to my heart and rubbing. It’s like an innate something that’s ordering me to devote myself to her. Is this—
Oh fuck.
“Probably,” James says, and I blink.
“You think?” Danny asks, surprised.
“Yeah, I think. Pregnancy’s brought out a reasonable side to her.” He smiles at the mirror, and I laugh under my breath.