Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
"That sounds like a great idea," I say, practically purring.
After paying, he leads me out to the truck. The drive back is silent, but it's nice. His fingers slide between mine as he drives, rubbing his thumb back and forth over my hand. I bite my lip and look out the window because I'm about to come on the spot.
"Am I being too forward?"
"No. It's just...well, we have a busy day ahead of us." Understanding my meaning, he nods, but he doesn't stop. Once we're pulling through the ranch gate, he parks in front of the house and says, "Don't move. I'll help you out."
"I can."
"Woman, did you hear me? Are we going to go through this again?"
"Okay. Fine." I smile and wait for him to come around. When he opens the door, I swear I don't feel the cold because the heat between us is coming off in massive waves. His hand comes up to my cheek and I close my eyes, absorbing his touch.
"You're so beautiful, Ava."
He leans in as if he's going to kiss me, but instead unbuckles my seatbelt. I sigh, and so does he. "I'm sorry, but if I kiss you now, we'll never get anything done but orgasm after orgasm."
"I get it. Let's just get the groceries inside."
"You take your ass inside and I'll bring them in." I use the key he gave me two days after we met. I unlock the door and strip out of the winter gear, placing my boots on the mat so I don't get water everywhere. He drops off the first round of groceries at the door and goes back for more.
I take a handful and go into the kitchen, setting them on the large island to put them away. It takes me another five minutes to bring them from the door to the kitchen since there are a lot of bags. Tobias kicks off his boots and comes into the kitchen with the last of the bags and helps me put them away. We bump into each other and he grips me around the waist to stop me from falling. Our eyes meet, breathing faster and faster. We lean in and then force ourselves to pull back.
"Damn it. I'll let you get back to this. I have a bunch of things to check on around the ranch. I will be back at four and then if you want to help me, we can get to work on the end of the year numbers and filing."
"Okay." He's out of the door before I can say anything else. I realize that we never picked up a phone for me, so I just continue organizing the pantry with all the stuff we picked up. After I'm done, I straighten up the room and head out into the living room to give it a clean. The cleaning crew came yesterday briefly. They do the windows, bathrooms, and the baseboards type of cleaning, which I'm grateful for because I have no interest or energy for that, but I do all the other household cleaning.
An hour into cleaning, the doorbell rings. That's a first. I walk over to the door, and it's one of the ranch hands.
"Hello, Miss Ava. I'm Dillon. We haven't met officially, but I have a favor to ask. I'm out of garlic for dinner tonight, and the boss man said you guys just picked some up at the store."
"Come on in and I'll get it."
"I'll wait here. I don't want to get water on the floor. Also, Tobias asked me to bring this to you." He hands me a cell. "It's Tobias’s phone. He says if he needs to call you, he'll use one of our phones.”
"Okay, thanks. Give me a second and I'll get that garlic for you." I return twenty seconds later with a bulb of garlic. "Here you go."
"I don't need that much,” he explains, looking at the jumbo one I gave him.
"I have plenty for the next two weeks."
"Thanks. It's hard to serve fresh garlic mashed potatoes without garlic."
"No problem. It's nice to meet you officially, Dillon."
"Uh oh, John's calling." I answer, "Hello John."
"No, babe. It's me. I totally forgot about your phone, but I'll order it online tonight. I'm glad Dillon dropped it off. Did he leave?"
"Not yet. He needed garlic."
"Oh yeah. I suppose I should have asked if he needed any groceries before I left." He's grumbling something, but I swear I hear tapping on the phone.
"It's okay. We have plenty."
"I'll be on my way," Dillon says, walking out of the house after checking his phone.
"Bye, Dillon." He's quickly out of earshot and then I growl on the phone. "Did you send him a message?"
"I did. I told him to be quick about it."
"I stopped him because I thought John needed you."
"I'll be with John the rest of the day, so you don't have to worry about it. You'll get a call from this number if necessary. See you soon, babe."