Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 437(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Grinning as he hit the call button on his phone, I mused, “I hope you pay this Jay very well.”
“Oh, I do.”
Then something occurred to me. “You two didn’t … you know?”
“Really?” London nudged me. “Can you be a jealous girlfriend later?”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” I replied without thinking, my eyes darting to Ramsay.
He scowled. “Jay’s just a friend. And no, you’re nothing as simple as my girlfriend. But when this is all over, I hope you’ll consider being my woman again.”
The way he said “my woman” in that growly, deep accented voice … I was inappropriately turned on. “Why is that hot?” I asked London as Ramsay started to talk with Jay. “That shouldn’t be hot, right?”
London gave me a sad shrug. “It was hot.”
Oh God, what a serious idiot I was being. I reached for her hand and squeezed. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She tightened her fingers around mine. “After everything you’ve been through, I want nothing but the best for you.”
“We all okay?” Ramsay asked as he snapped his phone shut, eyes darting between us. And I knew he saw everything. He always had.
“We’re good. What’s next?” London demanded.
“We walk out of sight of the building for the next fifteen minutes, giving Jay time to do what she needs to do.” He gestured with a nod down the street and we followed.
Two young women in exercise gear walked toward us and one of them spotted Ramsay and nudged her friend. Their mouths parted as they stared at him like he was a big ol’ water bottle after an intense workout. Eyeing his tight ass in his dark jeans, his broad shoulders in his navy T-shirt, I was equally thirsty for him. Ogling him continued to keep my mind off the shittiness of London’s situation.
“Hey.” One of the women nodded at Ramsay as she passed, her lips curling in invitation.
To my delight, he didn’t acknowledge her, not even to be polite.
“I’d climb that man like a tree,” her friend groaned as they passed me and London.
“He’s not exactly inconspicuous, is he?” London whispered, threading her arm through mine.
“Nope.” It made me wonder how he managed to be invisible as a spy. I guess, for him, that wasn’t part of his skill set. Or maybe it was. I couldn’t imagine ever not noticing him when he was in the room.
“Are the women on your island as thirsty for him?”
“No one who’s been obvious about it,” I murmured back. “It’s more tourists and visitors who flirt with him. But we don’t have to talk about me and him right now.”
“I need to talk about something or I might scream. Nick blocked me from getting into an apartment I naively thought was ours, not his, and somehow, it’s almost as bad as him punching me in the face. Anyway, distract me. Are you two back together?”
I wanted to press her about her feelings, but I granted her wish and didn’t. “I don’t know. We had a lot to talk about this morning and then this … so … I don’t know.”
“Does he want you back?”
Nervous excitement fizzed through me. “He does.”
“Do you love him?” she whispered.
Emotion clogged my throat and I nodded. “So much it kind of terrifies me.”
“I guess that’s your answer.” London leaned in closer. “I never loved Nick. He excited me at first and I guess I was caught up in the great sex … but I never loved him, which somehow makes me feel worse that I got into this situation.”
“You never loved him because some part of you knew he wasn’t right for you. That shouldn’t make you feel worse, Spoon.”
“My point is … I think, before I knew what he was really like, I was going to settle for him because I didn’t really believe in love. Not the kind they talk about in books and movies. But this is love.” She gestured to Ramsay, who was much farther ahead than us now on the sidewalk. “The way he looks at you. Him doing all of this. He’s only kind of doing it for me. This is mostly for you. He looks at you like he’d do anything for you.”
I gripped her tighter, forcing back my tears as a wave of confusing emotions flooded me.
Hope, happiness, surreal disbelief that I’d found the one and he felt the same way about me.
Guilt that I might have this while London was going through hell.
Rage at Nick for putting her through hell.
Ramsay suddenly glanced back at us and waited for us to catch up. “Let’s wait around the corner here.” His gaze sharpened on my face. “What is it?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head.
His expression said he didn’t believe me, but he let it go, though I felt him watching me as we waited for Jay to do her thing.
46. Ramsay
Silver was looking at me in a way that gave me hope. But I couldn’t let my mind wander to that.