Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
They both disappear back into the garage, and I set down the glasses and bottle next to his ashtray and drop into the pool.
“Where have you been?” he says as he brings the cigar to his mouth.
He narrows his eyes, trying to look stern, but it only makes me want to play.
I press my body to his, reaching behind him to pour us each a glass. His own leather bracelet—with the hourglass and the snake—wraps around his wrist, but I’m trying to talk him into a tattoo. I want the family symbol on him.
“Meeting with the landscaper about the cemetery,” I reply.
“Aren’t you landscapers?”
I cock an eyebrow. “You’re just dying to see me mow a lawn again, aren’t you?”
Finally, he breaks into a smile. “It was the best day of my life,” he muses. “For a long time.”
If I were a better guy then, I would’ve been more careful with him, but…
Would we have been ready for each other? It’s hard to have any regret anymore, because we ended up here and happy. Like that’s the way it was supposed to go all along.
“You were so hot,” I coo, taking the cigar from his fingers. “Standing up there, looking like the man with a girl hanging off you, but you wanted my ass, didn’t you?”
I take a puff as he tugs the chain around my neck, pulling me in. “You liked me looking.”
“Damn right, I did.”
We’re about to kiss, but a shrill voice slices through our moment. “I can’t find my charger!”
A tool clangs against the garage floor, and I wince. Macon’s going to have a fucking fit.
“We have extras!” I call out as quietly as possible.
Leaning in, I return my attention to my man. “Seriously, how many fucking chargers can she lose?”
“She’s excited to see snow,” he tells me.
We’re taking her to Colorado—to Vail—and letting her learn how to ski and ice-skate and wear lots of scarves through the New Year. We leave right after Christmas.
I remember that night she told me she could leave after she sees snow, but she doesn’t say things like that anymore. Anna-Katherine hasn’t had an episode since living with Callum and me. No one fucks with her or ever will. She feels safe now.
I press my forehead to Callum’s. “And I’m excited for the nights.”
I don’t think I’m going to like the cold, and I definitely won’t remember my manners in this ritzy hotel he booked, but we do have our own room with a balcony and a fireplace and a hot tub.
Perfect place to ask him to spend the rest of his life with me.
I pull him in, taking his mouth in mine and wrapping my arms around him. I taste the cigar mixed with mint, his tongue stirring my insides until I can barely breathe.
Still holding him, I break the kiss and stare into his eyes, thinking back to our mission the last five years. Make the Bay too valuable for them to take.
I had no idea he was going to be the asset that made us priceless.
“What?” he asks me.
I just shake my head. “Just funny how life works out.”
But even if he brought nothing to the table, I wouldn’t care.
“I’m scared.” I swallow to clear my throat. “To lose you, I mean.”
His eyes play with me. “Well, it would serve you right to learn how it feels.”
I laugh with him, but I take his face and kiss him again. And again.
“Never stop loving me,” I say.
He grabs my hips. “I never did.”
I can feel him harden, and we’re about to get too heated for outdoor display here, but before I can tear myself off of him, we hear footsteps.
“Someday, this will stop being awkward,” my sister says.
I look up, seeing her and Clay walking by in swimsuits.
Fuck.
“Merry Christmas Eve,” Clay chirps, climbing down the steps into the pool.
I drop my arms, stepping back a few inches. I’m going to get hard if I keep touching him.
“Looks like we showed up in the nick of time,” Liv teases, sitting on the edge opposite Callum and hopping in. “You can’t go to bed yet.”
I take another drag of the cigar as Callum grabs his drink. “Why?”
“Dinner, opening-a-present tradition, Midnight Mass…” Clay drones on.
“We can sleep in tomorrow,” Callum says, but it sounds like a question.
Liv shakes her head. “Not too late.”
She pulls Clay’s back into her chest, and I blow out smoke, setting the cigar down in the dish.
My sister explains, “Block party Christmas dinner at three, weather permitting, and you guys need to set up tables.”
Great.
“I could’ve hired someone to do all this,” Callum mumbles to me.
But Liv hears. “Rich boy.”
He makes a face, because we’re not exactly poor, either, but he knows what she means. He grew up with it. He hires people for the heavy lifting.
A breeze sweeps through the trees, the palms swaying overhead, and I lean in to leave a kiss on Callum’s neck and then his jaw.