Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“He’s taking my job? Jack’s a bartender,” Jensen complained. It had taken him years to get to dungeon monitor of a big club. It was rude.
“He’s also been in the lifestyle for years,” Harlow explained. “He’s a member of The Hideout, but he put his membership on hiatus for the last year. I think he was probably concentrating on his job, likely out of town for a lot of the time. I didn’t know what he was doing, obviously. But that’s why Niall never met him. So we should know more after tonight. How pissed off are you that she showed up?”
That question had been directed at him. Not Niall. Because Niall wasn’t the pissed-off one. Niall was the good one.
He had to stop thinking that way. He and Niall had spent much of the afternoon walking around what was left of the property. At one point they’d hauled out their old fishing gear and caught some catfish that Niall promised he could cook and talked about Harlow.
That was fucking nice, too. It was nice to be in it with someone else, someone he trusted.
“I was worried at first, but it’s clear to me that Ruby is a competent professional and if she says no one could have followed her, then I believe her.” He parroted back what he and Niall had decided would be the best answer to the question they knew she would ask.
Niall nodded like he was proud.
Harlow looked at him with suspicion. She turned her head to take in Niall, who sat back, the smile leaving his face. He took a sip of his beer.
“I thought you two were fighting,” she said, her gaze going back and forth between them.
“We’ve been friends since we were seven, so we almost never fight for long,” Jensen assured her. “Niall has been my brother for a long time. It would take a lot to break us. Though I almost managed it.”
“So a woman could never break you up. A woman is a bump in the road,” she said softly.
Ah, the danger zone. Luckily, he knew the answer to that one. “No, this particular woman is the end destination. I simply didn’t realize I would have a passenger for the long run. We settled this last night. You’re not something we fight over. You’re the woman we work together to take care of. And dominate. Why exactly are you wearing that dress? Your friends are gone. It’s late in the day. I think it’s play time.”
He needed them on the right footing. He needed her to think about pleasure and how well they could take care of her. She’d had time all day to vent her frustrations. Now it was time to fill that space with caring and attention and love.
Yep. He fucking loved her, and he was going to do this because he loved Niall, too.
Maybe he could start loving himself if he could change his mindset. For them. For himself. For his brother who couldn’t be here. Who would want him to have a good life with everything he missed.
Her eyes widened. “I thought it was talk time.”
He let his lips curl up slowly. “I can talk while you’re naked. Come on, Harlow. You know you like it. You spend most of your time naked.”
“She does? I mean I know she does in the club, but she’s worn PJs to bed with me,” Niall said with a frown.
Ah, Jensen knew this one. “Probably because you weren’t actually sleeping with her. I mean fucking her. You made her feel vulnerable so she wore clothes. She honestly feels way more confident if she’s had a good hard fuck.”
They could navigate her dangerous waters. Together. Like they had done with Algebra, except way better because he liked Harlow. And he’d never had hot sex with an integer.
“I want to say he’s wrong, but he’s not,” Harlow admitted. “And I’m still wearing the dress my sister so thoughtfully brought me because I’m worried about the dust in here.”
Niall stood up. “I’m on it. I actually did intend to clean in here earlier, but it was taken over by a lovely group of women who spent all day complaining about me.”
“It wasn’t just you.” Harlow had the most adorable pout on her face. “We complained about a lot of things. Also, we need to figure out how to keep Gabe from kicking Niall out. He’s pissed.”
“Why would I get kicked out?” For the first time Niall sounded like he wasn’t perfectly comfortable. “I didn’t lie about anything. I was honest on my application. No one asked me if I was there to watch over someone.”
“I don’t think that’s going to matter to Gabe,” Harlow admitted. “He wants to call a board meeting to reevaluate your status. The good news for you is half the board members are off on some kind of international mission now. They left last night, too. So it’ll probably be a week or two before he can kick you out legally. We have bylaws and everything.”