Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“Sure.” Her smile is far too ready and far too captivating. I don’t need to go down on my ass for a second time tonight. “Sounds good.” Her lips pull back further into a grin that exposes a flash of her white teeth. There’s the tiniest piece of lettuce stuck between her front two teeth.
I like that.
What. The. Fuck. Is. Going. On. With. My. Brain?
Before I can do or say anything silly—or sillier?—I call for a cab. After, I ball up my trash from the sandwich into my hand and hold on to it. We wait in silence.
They say silence can be profound.
But all I feel is a profound sense of excitement and dread that I agreed to do this again when I shouldn’t have even allowed myself a first time.
Chapter eight
Bellatrix
Adebriefing call with Mika the next day is inevitable. She calls me on her lunch break. I can take mine anytime since my days are often spent out of the office, and I have flexible hours.
Two seconds after she says hi, she immediately gets right down to it. “When are you seeing him again?”
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying not to get my stomach all aflutter again. It’s been that way since my phone dinged late last night, giving me access to calendar sharing.
Rowleigh either doesn’t give a shit about his privacy, or he trusts me.
I know he gives a shit.
His Sunday happened to be free, but only because he probably doesn’t schedule anything on purpose so he can spend the day catching up. I work every day of the week, even when I’m not scheduled, and I can’t imagine it’s any different for him.
“Sunday afternoon.”
“Ahh, that’s only a few days!” Mika sucks in an excited breath that sounds like a vortex right in my ear. “Yes, queen! Slay, slay, slay.”
“I don’t know if I slayed the first time. It was a bit of a disaster.”
I’m sitting on a bench outside a huge red barn twenty minutes from Providence. The place opened up a few weeks ago for bookings, but I would never recommend anything to my clients without checking it out first. It comes complete with a campground and golf course attached. It’s got the perfect country feel, not more than twenty minutes from the city.
“Girl, you ate on that first date,” Mika insists.
I dig the toe of my patent leather shiny black boots into the gravel before I quickly realize that gravel and shine are a bad mix. “I did. The most delicious sandwich. And it wasn’t a date.”
“It was totally a date.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be against popular jargon?” I shade my eyes and look over at the golf course. Since it just opened, the place is packed. There are golf carts driving all over the green and people pulling their clubs along. I keep a close watch so I can duck if anyone lobs a ball over here, though it would be in the wrong direction. “I thought the point of counterculture was to not use the most obnoxious language,” I sass.
“I can’t help it. I’ve been gaming too hard lately. When I’m on there, it’s all I hear.”
I love my books, and Mika loves gaming. We’re just two nerds at heart. I think that’s what makes our friendship work so well.
“Fair enough, but it’s not a date. There’s no seduction involved except for the seduction of life.”
“Come again?”
I’d like to come again. Or at all. On Rowleigh’s fingers, tongue, and cock.
Oh my god, get yourself under control.
I’m in a public place right now, and my face is probably redder than the huge barn at my back.
“I’ve been trying to come up with things that make him feel alive. I thought if he could do those things, it would bring him back to life and prove that he can still feel and does still want to feel. And that getting into an arranged marriage that does exactly the opposite and just…just stopping everything makes no sense.”
“Ahh. Well, date number two should definitely be seduction then. Kissing and touching makes everyone feel alive.”
“Sigh.”
“It’s not a sigh if you have to say it.” Mika’s laughter rolls over the phone.
It’s slightly windy with good cloud cover, so I’m not roasting out here, but Mika is probably getting a whole lot of wind in her ear.
“I went about it all wrong. I messed up the first time because it was about what makes me feel alive. Even if I had planned tacos, and a freak rainstorm hadn’t trapped us in a gazebo and drenched us to the skin, it still wouldn’t have accomplished what I wanted it to because I didn’t think about what would give him the most joy in life.”
“That sounds like the most romantic first date ever.”
“Not a date,” I grouse.
In the distance, someone swings, and another guy down on the green yelps and dodges aside, then yells profusely about opening eyes and licking buttholes. It’s followed by a burst of good-natured laughter from everyone, so at least no one is going to start taking off anyone’s face by throwing clubs around.