Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Why would that get his panties in a twist?
“Do you really think there’s a future for me without you in it?” he asked that time, enunciating every word, his gaze blazing into mine.
I’d thought for sure it would have been my heart that reacted to that comment, but it was my gut. “I don’t understand why you’re mad.”
His jaw ticced to the side, and I could see the battle on his face. In those eyes. Alex’s chest rose and fell before he said, very, very calmly, more controlled and gentle than I’d ever heard from him before, “It hurts my feelings that I’m right here, that you’re right there, and you still think that you’re ever going to be alone again.”
I blinked.
He did too.
I blinked again, and his head tipped to the side, those perfect cheekbones tight.
Had he just admitted that I’d hurt his feelings? Me? He might as well have… he might as well have told me his deepest, darkest secret.
I was stunned.
“Do I need to explain this in a different way?” Alex asked so carefully.
I nodded.
His gaze flicked upward, and he set his hands on those charcoal-colored hips, looking like The Defender and sounding like I’d thought The Defender would sound, but acting like… like fucking Alex as he muttered to himself, “Okay.”
What the hell was happening?
He pinched the bridge of his nose, dragging his fingers down the tip. Then he dropped his hand and looked at me. “Gracie?” he asked slowly.
“Yes?”
He was straddling that line between sounding grouchy and cool. “Guess what?”
I hesitated just a little, not sure where this was going but too curious to not wonder. “What?”
“Listen to me clearly.”
“I’m listening clearly.”
His mouth twitched first. Both his hands formed fists, but his voice was absolutely steady and so rich. He leaned in so his face was the only thing I could see as he said, “I always like you the most.”
OH BOY.
My whole soul went weak.
“What?” How was it possible that my eyes could start watering so fast?
He took a step closer and wrapped an arm around my lower back like it was the most natural thing in the world—it felt like it was—and he said evenly, in his Super voice, “I always like you the most.”
I tried to form a word, any fucking word, and nothing happened. I tried in English. In Spanish. In Portuguese.
All I came up with was mapsosa. It was Korean. It meant oh my god.
Alex’s breath was soft against the top of my head. “Not just sometimes. Not just when I tell you that you annoy me or when you make me laugh or when you’re talking back to me. Always. More then,” Alex told me quietly. “Do you understand that?”
Of all the ways I could’ve responded, I made a fucking squeaking, choking sound in my throat.
But he spoke Gracie apparently because he said, “You understand.”
I licked my lips, my heart already beating so damn fast. “I mean, I’m pretty cool, and I think you care about me, but….” I swallowed hard, this whole thing feeling like a damn dream or something.
He always liked me?
I was never going to be alone again?
Those were big fucking words. The biggest fucking words.
Alex shook his head against my hair. “I thought for sure you’d figured it out by now since you usually get everything else by yourself.”
“Figured what out?” I asked, too focused on the feel of him right there, of the weight of his hand on my back.
“I gave you every clue I could think of.”
Turning my head just a little, I let my cheek press to the strange texture of his suit. “What clues?”
The hand on my back moved up and down. “I told you I didn’t end up at your house on accident. Told you my grandmother made it happen. I heard her tell you that we were supposed to meet before then.”
“Uh-huh.” Why did I ever think he wasn’t that warm? He was.
“I told you about Agatha and Robert. Alana has a husband.”
I put my palm on the solid wall of his ribs.
His whisper sent goose bumps up my back as he breathed the words directly into my ear. “We both know what my grandmother showed you.”
Every single part of my body stiffened, and it took me a second to say, “Right, and we both know you didn’t want to meet me.”
Alex’s huff of a laugh went right to my ear, just as nice as his whisper. “I know I didn’t word it like that.”
“No, that’s word for word what you said.”
The palm on my back moved until his fingers curled around my hip, and I felt his laugh.
“Fucker,” I said, muffled against his chest.
That just made him laugh more, made him streak his hand up and down my spine, with what felt like his fingernails gently following along too. His breath brushed my ear again. “We both know that you like being told what to do as much as I do. We’re almost the same person, remember? You wouldn’t have believed me if I’d told you we were supposed to be together, and you know it.”