Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Jillian: What turns me on?
Jones: You like it when I kiss you like it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for years. You like it when I go down on you like you’re the hottest thing I’ve tasted. And you go out of your mind when I fuck you like there’s nothing I want more in the world.
Like that, I’ve entered a state of reckless arousal. I moan so loudly I’m sure my neighbors can hear, and I don’t care. I ache for him. I long for him.
Jillian: If you’re looking for me, my phone officially caught fire and melted.
Jones: Good. So I was right?
Jillian: You’re more than right, and I don’t think we’re doing a very good job at staying apart.
Jones: Are you in my house right now?
Jillian: Sadly, no.
Jones: Then, as far as I’m concerned, this is staying apart. No one ever said I couldn’t send you a dirty text.
Jillian: That was a little more than a dirty text. That felt like sexting. Like more than sexting.
Jones: It’s always felt like more with you. And now I can’t stop thinking about how much I want to be inside you again. So, distract me. Tell me what you told them about me.
I smile now, a giddy grin that seems to light me up from head to toe. I start to type, but he texts again.
Jones: Besides the obvious traits of awesome I possess. That I made you come so hard you saw stars, planets, and galaxies, and that my cock is illegal. Your words.
Jillian: I told them you rocked my world in bed. That you made a difference in the lives of families. That you helped my dad. That you’re very dangerous for me.
Jones: Dangerous?
Jillian: You’re the most intoxicating mix of rough and tender.
Jones: In bed?
Jillian: In bed and out of bed.
Jones: And do you like that mix? I think you do . . .
Jillian: You know I do. You’re sweet and sexy. You’re funny and kind. You’re jealous and caring. You listen. And you also make my toes curl, my knees weak, and my—
I send before I finish the last word. My fingers went too fast.
Jones: What was the last my . . .?
You make my heart flutter. But I can’t say that to him yet. Once those words make landfall, you can’t take them back. I’d be putting that fluttering heart on the line.
Jillian: My belly flip . . .
There. That’s safer.
Jones: I wish you were in my bed right now.
See? He likes the sex talk, too, and as I contemplate a naughty reply, he’s typing back.
Jones: That’s because the most dangerous thing to me is how much I like it when you’re curled up in my arms and you fall asleep with me at night. Because that means you’ll be in my arms when I wake up.
Jillian: That’s my favorite way to wake up.
As I stare at the phone, the problem is clear. Miami wasn’t a fling. Miami wasn’t a no-strings-attached dalliance for either one of us. That trip across the country was the start of everything, and I want to take him back and make him all mine again, with no consequences, no risk, and no fallout. I want it all, without anyone getting hurt.
The next morning, I crunch on some toast and sip some hot tea as I work on the lineup for my Fire-Breathing Dragons. After I adjust my starting pitcher rotation, I check my email.
A message from Kevin greets me. I click it open, and it’s the usual from him—an interview request. Can Cooper come on my Sunday preview show?
I’m about to reply that I’ll check with the quarterback, when I see his postscript.
P.S. See you at Sierra’s wedding this Thursday! Be sure to say hello to Shelly and me! We can toast to Sierra together!
I groan loudly. I forgot he’d be attending the wedding.
I might be over the guy, but this is precisely why he irritates me.
Because he thinks I’d want to say hello to him and the woman he cheated on me with.
“You sure know how to pick ’em, girl,” I mutter.
My spine straightens. Wait. Just because Kevin is a dickhead doesn’t mean I have bad taste in men.
Of course not. Jones is nothing like Kevin.
My taste is not an issue.
But perhaps my judgment is. I did fall for a man I can’t have.
Maybe I don’t know how to pick them at all.
27
JONES
Cletus leaps through the air, chasing a Frisbee, landing like the agile dude he is with the disc in his mouth. The camera zooms in on me and I give my one hundred percent honest assessment. “That’s why I won’t feed my little guy anything but the best.” Next shot, Cletus retrieves a ball as I finish my ode to the dog food. “When your dog is worth the very best, that’s when you give him Paleo Pet.”