Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 102394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 512(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
“I had it on vibrate while I was napping earlier. I guess I forgot to turn the ringer back on.”
“You should always take your phone with you,” I scolded. “And you should never have it on vibrate.”
“Well, it wasn’t intentional. I was just thinking—”
“You weren’t thinking. That’s the fucking problem!”
Her face reddened. “Calm your fucking balls, Wes. I didn’t mean to scare you. You were sleeping, and I didn’t want to wake you. I’d told Pam she could borrow my book. So I took it over to her, and then she asked me to stay for a glass of wine. That was it. Relax!”
As adrenaline coursed through me, I stormed toward her again. “I won’t fucking relax. You had me worried sick, thinking something had happened to you.” I inched closer. “Do you have any idea how scared I was that you could’ve been hurt—or worse?”
Her face softened as she looked into my eyes.
And somehow, I was certain she saw it.
The truth.
That this wasn’t just about my duty as her protector.
I couldn’t let my guard down like this. I forced myself to harden as I spewed words at her that I didn’t really mean. I just had to overshadow my own vulnerability.
“You are the most selfish person I know,” I lied.
“Selfish? What the fuck are you talking about, Wes? I can’t even do what I please in life because of this mess. How is that selfish?”
It isn’t. I’m just being a dick, so you can’t tell how damn crazy I am about you.
Her nostrils flared. “If you think I’m selfish, why don’t you tell my father you want a reassignment? I’m sure there are other things he could use your help with. Maybe he’ll assign a real man who won’t be so scared of me.” She pointed at my chest. “How can I be selfish when I can’t even live my life without you stuck to my ass all the time?”
I moved in, backing her up against the wall. “You wish I was stuck to your ass. That’s the problem, isn’t it, Juliette? You wish I was in your ass right now.”
Her mouth slowly widened. “Fuck you.”
“I know you want to…” I murmured.
That’s when I felt a firm slap across my face. I placed my hand on my cheek, realizing I’d taken it too far. But apparently there was still room to take it further.
Because the next thing I did was lean in and take her mouth with mine.
CHAPTER 16
* * *
Juliette
Wes abruptly pulled away, the sudden loss knocking the breath from my lungs, as if someone had yanked the rug out from under me. I touched my lips, the taste of him still lingering. “Wh…why did you stop?”
He shook his head. “Because that was a mistake and shouldn’t have happened.”
The words landed like a slap. “A mistake? Are you kidding me? You kiss me like that and have the nerve to stand there and tell me it was a mistake?”
“You know it was, Juliette.”
“A mistake is sending a text to the person you’re talking about instead of the one you were talking about them with.” I’d spent weeks listening to this man say one thing while his actions told me another, and I was done letting him hide behind excuses. “No, I don’t know that it was a mistake. What I know is that nothing has ever felt as good as that kiss. Nothing.”
He shook his head again. “It doesn’t matter how it felt.”
“Of course it does!” I yelled. “All that matters in life is how much you felt! When you’re lying on your deathbed, do you really want to think back to all the times you followed the rules? Or do you want to remember the moments that set your blood on fire, the ones that made your heart race and reminded you that you were alive?” My chest heaved, and unshed tears stung the corners of my eyes. “In the end, feelings are all we get to take with us.”
Wes pulled his hair at the root and paced. “I can’t protect you if I’m emotionally involved.”
“I didn’t think you were a coward.”
He stopped in his tracks. “What did you just call me?”
I walked straight up to him, pushed to my tippy toes, and spoke in his face. “A coward.”
“How am I a damn coward?”
“You’re using not wanting to get emotionally involved as an excuse. You’re already emotionally involved. Can you honestly look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t have feelings for me, that emotions aren’t involved just because we haven’t had sex?”
Wes’s chest rose and fell, his breaths uneven. Turmoil flickered in his eyes, and I saw it all—anger, denial, longing. “I’m not—” he started, then looked away. “I don’t have feelings for you like that.”
My heart twisted, even knowing that was a damn lie. I grabbed his chin and held it so he was forced to meet my gaze. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. Stop being a damn coward.”