Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
He shook his head, disoriented by the situation.
“Who’s Tori?”
That snapped his mind back into place. “Lydia, you need to leave.” He hustled over to her. “Now.”
“You’re cheating on me?”
“It’s not like that.” He put his hand on her back and nudged her down the hallway.
“I can hear the water running, Julian, and I heard you talking to her. I know she’s in the shower and you clearly just came out.”
Small blessings that Tori sounded like a woman’s name. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Julian, you walked out of that bathroom naked and wet from a shower. A shower that Tori is still in. How is that not cheating?”
When they had cleared the hallway and were standing in the living room, he took his hand off her. “It’s not cheating because we’re not together.” That was obvious and should have required no explanation, but she clearly thought otherwise and he didn’t want to be mean. Even if she had essentially broken into his house. He was going to change the door code as soon as she left.
“So she’s a hookup?”
“Who?” He realized she was referring to Tor. “No.” He shook his head. “I meant you and me.” He moved his finger back and forth between them. “We’re not together.”
“We’ve been dating for months,” she said, sounding more confused than angry.
He had made assumptions without confirming that they were on the same page. Maybe he bore some responsibility for this situation. “They were charity galas and company parties. That’s not really dating, is it?”
“That’s exactly what it is. We’ve been each other’s dates for every event for months. Even family events.”
She had a point; he had just never conceived of her as anything other than a friend so the idea that he could be viewed that way hadn’t occurred to him. He liked Lydia, enjoyed her company. She was interesting and smart. She was a good plus one for his events, he for hers, and sometimes the two overlapped. They were doing each other favors. At least that was how he saw it, but they hadn’t actually talked about it. “I should have been clearer. That wasn’t fair to you.”
“I can’t believe this.” She looked genuinely surprised. “I thought…” She shook her head. “We have so much in common. We run in the same circles. Our families get along so well. We get along so well. I know we’ve never”—she coughed—“you know, but I figured you were respectful or old fashioned or religious, a gentleman.”
He swallowed down his laughter at her description of him. If she had come in a few minutes earlier and heard what he had been saying or seen what he had been doing in that shower, she would have been disabused of any gentlemanly, old-fashioned, religious, or for that matter respectful notions she had of him.
She scrunched her eyebrows together. “You really don’t have any feelings for me?”
“Of course I do. We’re friends.” He meant that sincerely.
“That’s it?” she asked. “Nothing romantic?”
“I’m sorry. Look, Lydia, you’re pretty and smart and interesting, and talking shit with you about the people at those events is really the only bearable part of them, but you’re not my type.”
“It’s not me, it’s you. That’s seriously what you’re going with?”
“In this case, it’s true.”
“What’s your type?”
His type was the tough, brilliant, complicated, hung man who was almost certainly about done with his shower. “We can talk about this more later, but for now you need to go.” He stepped toward the door and pointed toward it, indicating she should follow.
“Were you saying something? I couldn’t hear you.” Tor’s deep voice, unlike his nickname, was unmistakably male.
As soon as Lydia heard it, her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “Oh,” she gasped, blinked, and then gasped again. “Oh! I understand. I’m so sorry.”
“Lydia—”
“No, it’s okay.” She shook her head. “I totally get it.” She rushed to the door. “Call me later and we can catch up.” She pulled the door open and looked at him over her shoulder. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell your mother or anyone else. Your secret is safe with me. Promise. Dinner is on the counter. Hope you and your Tori enjoy it.”
“Who was that?”
He sighed as he turned away from the closed door and toward Tor. “Her name’s Lydia Sinclair and I think I just broke up with her.”
“Huh. When’d you starting dating women?”
“I don’t date women. I don’t date anyone.” He marched past Tor and over to his couch and then collapsed onto it. “That was awkward as hell.” He closed his eyes and laid his forearm over them. “I need to change my door code.”
“Sorry about fucking things up with your girlfriend,” Tor said, sounding amused. He sat down beside him and curled his palm around Jule’s thigh.
“Fuck you.”
Tor massaged Jule’s bare leg.
He lowered his arm, opened his eyes, and looked down. “Where’s my towel?”