Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“Don’t do that,” I snip at him, feeling guilty as I do, but he only smiles at me. The heat of my words doesn’t have him stepping away like it does everyone else. In fact, he doesn’t move at all, his hands still cupping my cheeks. “My brothers and I play a game,” I tell him, making his brows rise.
“Not where I thought this conversation was going.” He lets out a low, annoying chuckle that might also be hot as hell.
“Or maybe not a game but a challenge. Who could get a sticker onto my nose without waking me.” They loved the hell out of that game, but it was more than a game, and they knew that too when I started playing it back with them. It is something you must train your body to be able to do. To protect itself at all times no matter what.
“You Marinos really don’t fuck around.” He drops his hands from my face. “I sleep light too, Sunshine. I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
“That’s not the point!”
“Well, I think it is.” He shrugs, stepping back.
“Don’t shrug at me.” A silent laugh leaves him. I narrow my eyes on myself.
“Maybe your subconscious trusts me.” That gives me pause. Could that be it?
“We barely know each other,” I point out, not ready to give in to his idea yet.
“All right then, what about your possessiveness? Wouldn’t that be too fast too?”
“It’s different.”
“Is it?” he challenges. “You think it’s different because you can sense that one.”
“I don’t know.” I rub my eyes. “I should walk away from you, but I’m not sure that I can.” The thought of leaving him has me clenching my fists.
A chime followed by a loud knocking interrupts my thoughts. It’s my cousins, I’m sure. I turn to head toward the door, but Paxton wraps an arm around me, pulling my back to his chest.
“Pants, babe.”
“It’s just—”
“For me.” On things to give on, this is an easy one, so I comply. It doesn’t help that when he calls me those little names, all my insides melt. It leads to an urge to be closer to him.
“Okay.”
“Thank you.” He pushes my curls off my shoulder and kisses my neck before dropping his hold around my waist. When I get back, he’s already opened the door to Eros, Mac, and Bonte.
“Be right back.” Paxton drops a kiss onto the top of my head; my attention is on the phone in his hand. He goes to move past me toward the bedroom, and my hand reaches out, grabbing his arm.
“Who’s on the phone?” His brows rise, and I can see that he is struggling to suppress a smile. “Never mind.” I drop my hold on him. I can find out for myself.
“It’s business. An issue has come up that I need to be updated on in Charleston.”
“Okay,” I simply mutter and keep walking.
“I won’t be long, Sunshine. I know you’ll miss me.” I glance over my shoulder at him, and he winks at me, taking me back to the third time I’d seen him.
“So you’re doing it?” Eros asks before stealing a piece of sausage off the dining table, where a full spread of food has now been laid out.
“What do you advise?” I ask my cousin, valuing his opinion. Most of my life I knew I’d grow up to work beside Mac and him. Though Mac has a lot of her own open projects. For all we know, she could have a whole other life, and it would not shock me.
“I’d advise you to do what makes you happy.”
“Success makes me happy.” Keeping control of all the East Coast docks is what my target is right now.
“I get that.” Eros drops down onto the sofa, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. Mac nods in agreement.
“Holy hell.” Bonte rolls her eyes. “Success isn’t happiness. Have you ever heard the saying ‘Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.’”
“No.” That does not sound familiar, and I’m not prone to forget things.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Eros asks what I was also wondering.
“I don’t care for riddles.”
“It’s not a riddle.” Bonte laughs. “Success is a series of things you’ll always be working toward. Chasing ‘happiness.’” She does air quotes around the word. “Happiness has to come from within. It is a state of being.” I stare at her. “Like me, you should be appreciative and happy to simply have me in your life.”
“I for sure get that.” Eros is quick to agree with her, but he’s full of shit. He doesn’t get it, but he knows happiness is Bonte, and in all fairness, he did kidnap her, so he was successful in his mission to have her.
“I’m not sure he does, but let me simplify it.” Bonte turns her attention to Eros; her eyes always soften on him. I think she is the only person in history that has looked upon Eros with softness of any kind. “If you marry for love, real love, then no matter what happens in life, you always have happiness, as long as you have that person.”