Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
And somehow, she was the one who saw I felt exactly the same.
My chest tightened.
Tightened to a gutting extreme as I got stuck there under the power of her stare.
Brinley finally pulled away, clearing her throat as she pushed from the table. “I’ll help.”
I did my best not to follow her trail as she moved into the kitchen area.
A vain attempt since Elena tossed the foil cover off the fresh baked pie, dipped a fork into it, and brought it to Brinley’s lips. “Here, taste.”
Brinley obliged, taking it into her mouth, the longest groan rolling out of her.
My brain computed it as the same damned sounds she made every time she came. Like what she was actually moaning was my name.
“This is literal heaven,” she muttered, trying to cover her mouth as she chewed, and gave Meems her baker’s praise.
Meems shrugged, eyes darting to me for a beat before they were back on Brinley. “Stick around for a while and you’ll know how to bake one of those for yourself.”
My logic recoiled against it while my stupid heart shouted, ‘yes, please’.
Brinley lightly chuckled. “I am no baker, Meems. You’d better not get your hopes up so much when it comes to me.”
Slyness crept in Meems’s features. “Oh, sweet one, my expectations are high.”
“I pie!” Kai smacked both hands on his tray, a lucky deterrent from the implications my grandmother was all too eager to toss around.
“Don’t worry, it’s on its way!” Elena sang, cutting a tiny piece and spooning a dollop of ice cream onto the top.
“I get pie, Wena?”
She danced back up to the dining table. Tapped his nose as she set the small serving in front of him. “Absolutely! Because we only get the best things in this house, isn’t that right?”
Elena headed back to the counter, and the second she walked away, Kai picked up the little plastic bowl and basically buried his face in it.
Laughing, I reached across Brinley’s empty chair so I could help him. “How about we do it like this, buddy?” I situated the chunky plastic baby spoon into his chubby hand.
Then Brinley was back, setting a plate of pie and ice cream in front of Brody. “There you go, Brody.”
“You spoil me,” he teased with a grin. But it was soft.
No question, Brinley’d had an impact on every person in my family.
“We all deserve to get spoiled every once in a while,” she said.
“Be careful, or we’re going to get used to it.”
He sent her a wink, though there was nothing flirty to it.
Just approval.
The truth that she fit.
She shifted and set one in front of me.
I didn’t know if it was her or the mouthwatering scent of the pie that assaulted my senses.
Apples and almonds and cream.
She eased back and started to round my chair.
And I felt the faintest flutter of fingertips running through my hair at the nape of my neck.
The only girl in the world who was gaining the power to touch my soul.
I guess I should have fucking expected this penalty.
“You don’t need to do those,” I mumbled as I slowly crept up behind Brinley where she was facing away at the sink, handwashing the dishes.
In that moment, I felt exactly what I was.
The villain.
A wraith.
A reaper sent to slay.
I stopped when there was five feet between us because I wasn’t sure I could get any closer and still get out what needed to be said.
Trying to work up the nerve to do what was right when every molecule that made up my being swore that it was wrong.
Half the lights had been cut, and only a bare glow from the fixture over the sink illuminated the space.
Everyone else had piled in the family room to watch a show with Kai before his bedtime, except for Brody who had gone running back to the club so he could devolve back into the revelry he thrived on.
Head down, Brinley shifted on her bare feet. “I don’t mind.”
Her voice was quieted. Muted. Filled with a timidness I’d never heard in it before.
Like she knew what was coming and she hated it every bit as much as me.
“Didn’t bring you here so you had to work.” I grunted it into the dense air.
How her laugh was both throaty and tinkling, I didn’t know. From over her shoulder, she cast me an affected smile, those wild curls swirling all around her stunning face. “I’m just earning my keep, remember?”
There was no taunt to it. It was a true question. Wondering what was really happening here.
“You are more than sufficient.”
She was too much. Too gorgeous and too good and too real.
A frown notched deep into her brow. “But I’m not, though, am I?”
I guess she had figured out how to read me in a way that no one else could. She already knew what was coming.