Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
“I’m still old enough to kick your ass,” he growled. “I’ll go talk to her. She doesn’t need to buy me groceries or anything else.”
What was she thinking?
“Hope you’ve still got her phone number then,” Tyler said.
“Of course I do. But why?”
“So you can talk to her.”
“Why would I need her phone number to talk to her when I can just walk down the hall and knock on her door?”
“Um, because she’s not there, brother.” Tyler looked confused. “I thought you knew that she was gone.”
“Gone? How can she be gone? I drove her here. How did she leave?”
“Ahh, she called for an Uber, man. I walked her down and grilled the guy, don’t worry.”
“You walked her down? Why didn’t you stop her?”
“Well, I wasn’t aware she was a prisoner,” Tyler said. “If you’re going to keep prisoners and not lock them up in the basement then you need to tell me, man.”
“There are never any prisoners locked in the basement.”
“At the moment. But at some stage we all know that Rusty is going to snap and lock some asshole up down there and we’re going to have to cover for him. It’s a matter of time.”
Travis just shook his head at his brother, muttering to himself as he stormed into his bedroom and grabbed his phone.
There were several messages waiting for him, but he ignored them until he found one there from her.
Caren: Thank you for letting me stay the night. I don’t feel I need any more watching over, though. And when I woke up this morning I realized I have a meeting that I had to get home and prepare for. Hope you slept well.
He frowned. That seemed quite a formal text message, especially considering that he’d had his fingers inside her less than eight hours ago.
What was going on? Why would she just sneak out like that? And what meeting? She’d never said anything. Was that a lie?
Oh, he didn’t like the thought that she might be lying to him.
And why? Embarrassment?
Or something else? Regret?
Well, it hadn’t been the smartest idea, had it? In fact, he should likely be grateful that she had left. If she’d stayed, what would he have said to her? Thanks for the fun but nothing more can happen?
That’s what he would have said . . . right?
Because it wouldn’t have gone any further than what it had. Caren wasn’t the sort of woman he was looking for long-term. Although she also wasn’t the sort of woman that you had a one-night stand with, either.
Fuck.
As annoyed as he’d been at Tyler for walking in and interrupting them last night, he’d likely done him a favor.
No. He wouldn’t want to give Caren the wrong idea. Or to use her. He wasn’t a fucking jerk. She was his friend.
Perhaps a bit of space was what they both needed.
Much as he hated that idea.
How was he going to protect her if he was giving her space?
But friends really shouldn’t fuck their friends. And that’s what they were to each other.
Just friends.
Travis: You should have woken me. I would have driven you home. And thank you for the food, but you really didn’t need to. Friends don’t pay their friends back for . . .
Shit. For what?
As he was thinking about what to say, he accidentally hit the send button.
Well, fuck.
Now he had to say something. But what to say? Obviously he couldn’t say orgasms or near fucks or anything like that.
Shit.
Friends didn’t pay back their friends for what?
She stared at the text message. She shouldn’t have checked it right away but as soon as she realized it was from him, she had to open it. She’d been nervous ever since she’d left his apartment, wondering if he’d message her and how he’d react to her leaving. And to her gift.
It was weird, right?
Of course it was. You didn’t just buy a friend a whole load of groceries simply for letting you stay the night.
Which gave her gift other connotations.
She placed her hand over her face, as though trying to hide herself. It wasn’t going to work, though.
Idiot.
Cockwomble.
Dick.
“You all right?” the driver asked her.
“Oh, yes, sorry.” She took a deep breath in and let it out. She really should have taken the subway to get to her appointment this morning, but she’d been feeling too distracted. She just hadn’t wanted to deal with crowds.
Why wasn’t he adding anything more to that text?
Was that it? Was that all he was going to say?
Her phone beeped again. Another message from Travis.
Open it.
Urgh.
Don’t open it.
God. She’d never been this indecisive in her life! It was frustrating.
“Um, ma’am?”
“Yes?” she said distractedly.
“We’re here.”
She glanced out at the tall building next to them. Right.
“Thank you. Sorry.” Grabbing her handbag, she stepped out of the car and approached the door. The doorman opened it and she gave him a small smile.