Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134073 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134073 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
“Cherry, stop eating. We’re supposed to be mad.”
“If you could taste how good this was, you wouldn’t tell me to stop, Harlow.”
The one named Harlow rolls her eyes and something about that is familiar.
“Do I know you?” I ask her, and she lets out a humorless laugh.
“You know all of us, Thanos,” Cherry says as she takes another bite. “Brooklyn here was the last one of us to go out with you and apparently you actually talked to her.”
“Thanos?” I shake my head because this is all getting jumbled up. “Okay, cards on the table, someone tell me what in the actual fuck is happening right now.”
“You went out with all of us on the dating app over the last few months,” Blair says as she walks up and grabs one of the coffees. “After we found out our sweet little Brooklyn was going out with you, we knew it was too good to be true. So the three of us set up a fake account and you asked us out last night. We had plans to meet at ten o’clock at the restaurant you took all of us to.”
“That’s impossible,” I deny, and Brooklyn still won’t look at me. “Ask my driver, ask my security guys. Fuck, I’ll pull up my cameras, hang on.” I pull out my phone and go to my camera feed. It takes a second for it to load but finally it comes up. “See!”
The girls move in close around my phone and they all stare at it.
“Look at the time stamp. I walked in my house ten minutes after I dropped Brooklyn off, and I didn’t leave again until this morning.” I speed up the time until they see me exit and they all lean back and look at one another.
“That doesn’t mean you didn’t agree to go out with our fake profile. Just that you didn’t go,” Harlow says.
“I deleted the app and the profile. Here’s the email confirming it.”
Brooklyn glances at it and then looks up at me. “Why would someone pretend to be you? That doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t know why anyone would want to be me—” I stop as the thought hits me. “Fuck.”
“What?” Brooklyn asks.
“Josh,” I tell her, and she cocks her head to the side.
“Your cousin?”
I nod my head. I told Brooklyn a little about him the other night when we were talking about our families and stuff. “I don’t know what the hell he’s up to, but I wouldn’t put it past him.”
I see some of the hurt leave her eyes and I think there’s a stirring of hope.
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this, but please, you’ve got to believe me. I don’t want to be with anyone but you, Brooklyn. I’ve never felt this way in my whole damn life, and I wouldn’t do anything to screw it up. I’m sorry that I went on dates with your friends, and no offense to them, but it meant nothing to me.”
“None taken,” Cherry says with a mouth full of food.
“Yeah, you weren’t any kind of prize for us, but we’re hoping things are different for our girl.”
“This is just a lot to take in,” Brooklyn says, but when I take her hand in mine she doesn’t pull away.
“I came here to bring you breakfast and give you a lift to work. Come with me and we can talk some more. Trust me, Buttercup.”
She looks up at me when I call her the nickname and I see the edge of her lips curl like she’s fighting a smile. She nods and for the first time since last night, relief fills me.
“Ladies, enjoy breakfast on me.” I nod to them as I grab Brooklyn’s bag and get her out of there before she can change her mind. The women shout goodbye to her as the door closes and I hurry her out of the building and outside as fast as I can.
Chapter Eleven
DASH
“Stop by the bakery again on the way. If we catch traffic right we’ll have time,” I call to the driver as we get in the back.
I raise the window between us and close the door as he pulls away from the curb.
“I’m sorry about last night and all that—”
I shake my head and hold up a hand to stop her. “No, I should never have given you a reason to doubt me or what I want. Obviously, I didn’t do a good enough job letting you know what I feel for you, and that’s going to change starting now.”
Before she can say another word, I’m pulling her to me and kissing her like it might be the last time. She doesn’t hesitate as her arms wrap around me and I slide my hands to her ass. I lift her onto my lap and run my hands up her body and to her breasts as I feel the weight of them in my hands and squeeze them through her shirt.