Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
“You’ll be fine,” he assures me, as if he knows what time my flight is. “You don’t have to change.”
“These clothes are twenty-four-hour-old clothes. I’ve been to the airport with them.” I start to say more when he bends his head and his mouth stops me from talking. I let my purse and sweater fall to the floor. I put my hands on his chest as I close my eyes and take in the kiss. His tongue plays with mine and his hand grips my hip tighter, pulling me flush to him.
He lets me go after a minute. “Thank you for last night.” I look up at him and he just smirks at me.
“No,” he says, his hand coming up to play with the hairs that fell out of the bun by the side of my face, “thank you for last night.”
“Pretty sure you did most of the work.” He laughs and I get on my tippy-toes and even that doesn’t get me close to his lips, but he gets what I’m going for and kisses me again. I look into his eyes before glancing back to his chest. I make a mental note of his tattoo, my finger moving to trace a couple of lines. “Thank you for the most memorable”—I hold up my finger—“first-time one-night stand.” He throws his head back and laughs and I have to wonder how many of these he’s had. Don’t do that, I immediately tell myself, don’t go there. “You are at the top of the leaderboard,” I quickly say something to make him laugh and then his laughter stops abruptly when the phone rings from my purse. “That’s my ride,” I tell him.
“Thank you,” he says to me, “for—” He doesn’t say the words and I smirk.
“For that thing I did with my mouth.” I wink at him, and he smiles, the creases around his eyes showing me it’s a true smile. “You’re welcome, Zane.” I turn and then walk to the door. I look over my shoulder as I pull open the door and find him watching me. “I hope your house doesn’t have termites.” I roll my lips as the phone stops ringing, and I give him one last smile before I walk out of the room.
My heart speeds up in my chest and my stomach feels like I’m going to be sick as I exhale and walk to the elevator. I press the button, looking back at the empty hallway as my phone rings again. I fish it out of my purse, seeing that it’s not my driver but Ariella. “Hey,” I answer, watching the empty hallway the whole time, “what’s up?”
“Just checking in on you. What time is your flight?” she asks me as the elevator gets here, and I inhale before getting into the elevator and pressing the number of my floor.
“I’m heading out now,” I reply as the elevator door stops and I push away the feeling that I’m sad he didn’t come running after me. “Hey, question. After you had a one-night stand with my brother, did you feel sad he didn’t chase after you when you left the room?”
“Oh my God,” she squeaks and then her voice goes low, “you had a one-night stand?”
“Yup,” I confirm, pulling the key card out of my purse and opening my door, seeing the bags I dumped at the door when I got in and rushed down to the bar to get something to eat.
“With who?”
“No clue, met him at the bar last night. Drank a glass of wine, flirted with him, and he didn’t flirt back. Which was annoying. He paid for my meal and when we went into the elevator, I said, ‘Is this when you ask me to go back to your room?’”
“What?”
“I know, I was as shocked as anyone,” I say. “He said yes and, well, the rest is history.” I grab my bags and head to the bed. “Anyway, I have to change before I leave to go to the airport,” I tell her.
“Was he good?”
“Oh yeah, my vagina is well-used.” I laugh as I pull off my sweater. “I have to run. I need to rush. I’ll call you later.”
“You better,” she snaps. “I want all the details.”
“No.” I shake my head. “Those are mine,” I tell her. “It’s one night and it’s all mine.”
four
Zane
Five months later….
I pull up to the black, stainless-steel garage door and take out my pass, scanning it at the magnetic square, and the door slowly starts to creak open. I wait for the door to completely open before I drive down the ramp to the underground parking.
The valet office in the corner sits empty, since Clive only gets here after eight during the week and two when we have a Saturday game. Pulling into my parking space, I look at the center console to see it’s four minutes after seven. I turn off the car, grabbing my phone from the console and the leather binder on the passenger seat.