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)
I walk back out and see the crowd has dwindled and after twenty minutes, I’m done. I walk over to Jaxon, who is by the ball pit with Ariella and Victoria. “Hey,” I say, “I’m heading out.”
“I think we’re going to go too,” Jaxon replies. “It’s almost time for this guy to eat.”
I look at Victoria and I was not kidding when I said she’s coming with me. I will throw her over my fucking shoulder if I have to. She stands up. “Maybe I can catch a ride with you,” she says to me, “so they don’t have to go out of their way.”
“Sure,” I agree.
“What if it’s out of his way?” Jaxon now says.
“I have nothing to get home to. I have the time. See you on Monday,” I tell Jaxon. I hold out my hand for Victoria to walk with me before he asks questions or thinks too much about it.
“See you guys tomorrow, I think,” she says, giving Jagger a kiss and then walking side by side with me out of the event.
“That was smooth,” she teases, looking at me, “and you said thirty minutes.”
“You’re lucky I lasted as long as I did,” I tell her as we walk into the garage and head over to my SUV. We don’t say anything the whole ride to my house or as I park in the garage and then get out.
I hold the door that leads into the house open for her as she steps in, placing her purse down by the door. “Okay.” She inhales. “Let’s do this.”
She steps into the house, going to the living room and I follow her. My hands grip her hips, and I pull her to me, needing to taste her again. “Let’s do this, Victoria,” I declare before I kiss her. This time she pushes away and stands in front of me. All I want is to touch her, to have my hands on her, so I do it. “Well, talk,” I urge, “but I have to touch you while we talk.”
“No, Zane.” She shakes her head. “If you touch me, I’m going to forget what I have to say and then we’ll be back at square one tomorrow.”
“Five minutes to get it all out, and then all bets are off.”
“You can’t put a time limit on a discussion that we are having,” she snaps.
“I just did.” I take out my phone. “Set timer for five minutes,” I say as I pull up my timer.
“You are incredible.” Her voice goes louder and louder. “You don’t talk to me for what… a month?”
“Twenty-four days,” I correct her and her mouth hangs open. “Yeah, I was counting.”
She blinks. “Okay, you want to do this like this. Hostile, let’s do it. First time was a casual hookup.” She folds her arms over her chest, and my jaw gets tight. “Second time we knew each other a bit more. Now it’s becoming a pattern.” She looks at me, and I want to touch her. “I’m not interested in being a random hookup when you get horny.”
The look becomes a glare as I growl out, “Don’t ever fucking talk about yourself like that, ever again.” My voice is tight, surprising her, and I put my hands on my hips.
“Well, we need to call a spade a spade and this…” she points to me and then herself, “this is a spade.”
“I don’t even know what the fuck you are talking about,” I say, walking to her to take off her jacket and sit her on the couch with me. I reach for her jacket, but she moves away from my hands, and I groan as I look at the ceiling.
“This is the last time you zigzag”—she points at me, and I grab her finger, kissing it—“or pivot.”
“Pivot?” I ask, confused.
“Yeah, no more pivoting,” she snaps. “You’ve walked away from me four times.” She holds up her hand.
“How do you count four times?” I ask her.
“One was the day after the one-night stand.”
“How does that count? You left me, so you technically walked away from me.” I slip my hand into hers.
“The second time you saw me at the bar and got all jealous and showed up at my door.” She holds up another finger.
“I had to go to work, so no one walked away from anyone. So that is still zero for me and one for you.”
“Then I came here and you broke up with me.”
“I didn’t break up with you. You walked away from me.” Her eyes go into slits. “So it’s zero me and two for you.” I lean and kiss her jaw. “You walked away from me the last time,” I point out to her.
“Yeah, and why did I do that?” she asks, but doesn’t wait for me to answer, “because I said I was done with this casual thing.”