Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 153946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Me: I’m going to tell Morgan about you renting the apartment tomorrow. Fasten your seatbelt.
Wade called me less than a minute later.
“You weren’t gone that long,” he said when I put him on speaker. “What happened? Did you count your tips and realize you don’t need me anymore, so it’s okay to throw me under the bus?”
The sound of his deep voice brought this afternoon back in a rush and I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, despite my dilemma. “The tips were nice, but no. I’m not throwing you under the bus and I still need you. For rent,” I tacked on at the end, though we both knew that hadn’t been what I was talking about. “I don’t want us to keep this a secret from her anymore. It feels unnecessarily duplicitous.”
“Good word.”
“It’s a mouthful. But treacherous sounded too extreme in my head.”
After a pause, he said, “Are you planning to tell her everything?”
“Are you high?” I laughed before he could answer. “I’m only telling her about the apartment for now. I’ll mention the race when she gets home, though Lucy will probably get to her first. But as long as I do it before she confronts me about it, it will take the wind out of her sails and I should be okay.”
“I see you’re putting a lot of thought into this.”
“Bernie used to do the same thing with you. I seem to remember hearing about a B minus on her report card, followed by a tattoo reveal, all leading up to her pregnancy confession.”
“Thanks for the flashback.” I could hear the grimace in his voice. “That was one hell of a week. I didn’t realize she’d been spreading out the bad news with my feelings in mind.”
“We aren’t sadists, Wade. We’re trouble magnets. We know we can’t dump everything on you at once, because you need time to process. Like Morgan.” I hesitated. “About that other thing… I thought maybe we could keep that to ourselves for a while?”
Wade wanting me was mine. Something I didn’t want to share in case it disappeared.
“I was just sitting in my office and thinking about that other thing,” he drawled.
I tugged the phone closer. “Is that what you were doing?”
“I was wondering how long I had to wait before we could do it again.”
I wondered if he’d ever had phone sex before. With a voice like his, I bet he’d be exceptionally good at it.
“On the subject of said thing, we might have to renegotiate the lease agreement,” I teased. “Orgasms of today’s caliber surely balance out the extra cash you’ve been paying me for the pool.”
That was me. Just going full Mrs. Roper like a wild thing.
“Don’t start, August. We’re keeping that separate, remember? The rental and the job have nothing to do with what’s going on between us. If you want to renegotiate the lease, we can talk about it next month. If you want another orgasm, you can talk about that right now.”
Oomph. That unapologetic command in his voice was doing it for me. And I did really want to talk about having another orgasm. “Whatever you say, boss.”
He breathed out a groan and I heard a door close. “Jesus. What made you decide to tell your sister about the apartment anyway?”
“I missed her call today because Bernie kidnapped me and then you locked me in your office and had your wickedly one-sided way with me,” I said with a grin. “You know there ain’t no guilt party like a Retta guilt party.”
’Cause a Retta guilt party don’t stop.
His gravelly grunt of amusement hit me right between the thighs. He sounded like Henry Cavill’s Geralt when he did that. I’d absolutely toss a coin for his Witcher. “Forget the guilt, Gus. Did you like what happened between us?”
Did I like it? “I loved it. I’ll love it even more when you let me reciprocate.”
“You promised me a few days.”
“I know.” I sighed. “And I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I hope those days pass quickly, because I’m a very tactile person and I have a lot of ideas about where I’d like to put my hands.”
He made a rough sound into the phone. “What are you going to do with your hands after we hang up?”
“That’s a leading question, but my answer is going to disappoint you. First, I’ll write out what I’m planning to say to Morgan tomorrow. I’ll definitely mention the fact that I let you have your special old-man bed and full use of the pool to really make myself look good.” When he laughed, I crossed my legs and closed my eyes. “Then, well there’s this big, gloriously sexy beast that lives in the apartment behind my house.”
“Glorious beast? You don’t say.”
“Yes. And talk about talented hands.” I hummed into the phone playfully. “He is very handy to have around. He’s always outside doing chores with his shirt off, flexing his muscles and tempting me to touch them.”