Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75323 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
That was good. Maybe I could get one of them to go check on Arty for me, so Lula didn’t get suspicious.
“Is that—” Lula started, then cut off, making me look over to find her gaze raking over me, her eyes so heavy-lidded they were mostly closed.
She’d been wearing the fluffy robes from the hotel, but without one of those here, she’d slipped into one of her own silk robes in a color that could only be called a whisper of pink. It was painfully obvious that there was nothing on beneath it with the way the material cascaded over her breasts, hips, and ass.
She’d taken off her bonnet, and judging by how much her skin was glistening, I imagined she’d already slathered on her oils and lotions.
My hands itched to reach out, to feel the impossible softness of the skin of her ankle, calf, knee, up under her robe.
“You there?” Dixon asked in my ear, making me jolt.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“I said we were thinking of being in Miami by eight. You mind if we park where you’re at?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Teddy’s glass beach house.”
“Alright, see you then.”
“See you then.”
I ended the call and placed the phone back down. “Don’t get your hopes up. It wasn’t Arty.”
“Who are we going to be seeing then?”
“Seems like Zayn was calling all his close friends. He name-dropped us. Now we will be seeing the Golden Glades crew here later. Go to the club together.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Don’t stress out. I know you aren’t used to a lot of company, but it will only be three of ‘em. And their main focus tonight will be finding something pretty to go home with.”
“I’m okay with meeting them. Will they be staying here?”
“Might be a very slight chance someone crashes if they get kicked out of whoever’s house they go to. But they will stay out of our hair.”
“So, still no word from Arty?”
“Not yet. But don’t stress about that. We’re going to have fun tonight. We can worry about all that shit tomorrow.” I took a few deep breaths, meaning to calm down my desire, but all I managed to do was breathe in the intoxicating scent of her.
“Yeah, no. I’m determined to try to only focus on that when it’s time. Now that we’re here, I don’t really have a lot of time left to enjoy things.”
My heart dropped at that.
The road trip felt endless in the best kind of ways. But we were at the final destination. Once we knew about Drake, once we had a location, it was basically over. Barring no complications. Like a missing hacker or something.
I was running out of time.
Well, I was out of time to catch her when she was all soft and sweet with me. There would be plenty of time back in Shady Valley. But there would likely be at least a week between this trip and seeing her again. Likely more like two.
It was almost over.
I tried to shake that thought off, but it had claws.
“When’s the last time you went to a club?” I asked, trying to distract myself.
“An actual club? God, I’m not even sure. College, I guess.”
“Baby girl, that’s way too long.”
“My last club experience involved half-dragging, half-carrying my roommate out after her drink was spiked, then sitting with her all night at the hospital to make sure she was okay.”
“No one is gonna spike your drink when I’m around. You can relax and have fun.”
“What kind of fun? Getting drunk?”
“If you want. Or just have a few, dance, enjoy the atmosphere. I’m sure Zayn’s club is something else. You can probably expect some celebrities. But if you’re not having fun, we can leave. No questions.”
“I sound like a Debbie Downer, don’t I?”
“No. You sound like someone who hasn’t done anything just for the fun of it for so long that you might not even know what you’ll enjoy anymore.”
“That is… a little painful but very true.”
“It’s not a bad thing. It means you have a ton of chances to fall in love with new things.”
“That’s a really cool way to reframe it,” she said, watching me as I moved across the lower level toward the kitchen.
Normally, I was pretty nocturnal. But the road trip made it so we had to check out early and get on the road, so staying up late was going to require more caffeine.
“You can count on me for finding the bright side,” I agreed, reaching up into the cabinet to grab the grounds.
As I was coming back down, I caught sight of Lula, her lips parted, her gaze hazy as it moved over my midsection.
I’d never be jacked like some guys at the club, like her cousin Detroit, but I worked out with enough frequency that there was definition in my abs. And being on the thinner side just made them all the more visible, without spending hours a day at the gym.