Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“Maybe it is smarter for you two to have some space.” He must have seen the face I made because he quickly amended himself. “While you’re figuring out who’s stalking and threatening you guys.”
“That could take a few days or that could take a couple of years.”
Chris pursed his lips. He knew I was right. Still, I could understand that his advice was rooted in concern for me. Chris had one of the biggest hearts I knew a person to have, sometimes to his own detriment. I’d seen him give and give and give to people who didn’t deserve his time, much less his energy and compassion. His alcoholic and abusive father was one of those people. Someone who not only physically assaulted his own son but had also taken thousands of dollars from him. He never stole from Chris, because he didn’t need to. Chris would willingly give his father the money because of the sob stories about why he so desperately needed the cash.
Chris couldn’t turn him down, not once. He cared too much.
And I could see that now. I loved him for it.
My phone buzzed on the armrest of the couch. I was close to ignoring it but I saw a name I recognized from the corner of my eye. I unlocked it and read the message from Miles, my lips twitching into a smile even though I felt a pang of guilt and indecision.
“It’s an invitation,” I said, looking at Chris, my eyebrows rising. “Miles wants to take me out on a date.”
Chris stayed quiet for a moment. His expression was unreadable. The silence was only interrupted by the patter of rain against my windows. “What are you going to do?” he asked.
“I know the smart thing to do is to listen to what you’re saying. To have a little distance until we can figure things out but… since when did I ever make the smart choice?” I asked, knowing that my mind had been made up the second I read that text.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Date With Dragons
MILES
I checked my breath for the hundredth time as I waited outside of Dyl’s home. It was minty fresh, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I pulled out a tin of breath mints from the center console of my car and popped one in my mouth.
Dylan was stuck in my head as if he’d spray-painted his name across the inside of my skull. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. My attraction toward him had started as a very strong simmer that now boiled over and consumed my entire existence. It was difficult to deny what he said about fate being involved. I didn’t feel like this with any of the few lovers in the past. I had been in two serious relationships and broke up with both guys after a year together, either not feeling the chemistry or not trusting the person I was with.
None of that happened with Dylan. Yes, we were in early stages compared to those relationships, but even then, I couldn’t deny there was a difference. With my last boyfriend, I remember missing my alone time about a month in, immediately after he had moved his toothbrush and clothes into my apartment in Philly.
Now, though? Now I wanted to run with Dyl to the closest apartment complex and sign a long-term lease right there and then. Waking up with him in my hotel room had rewired my brain.
The more I thought about him, the less heavy the consequences of telling the coach and GM felt. Could I really lose my job? And would it be worth it? Upon first meeting him I may have answered no, but now after getting to know my bumblebee-fearing wolf shifter with his beautiful smile and his perfect dick—my answer heavily leaned toward hell yeah. I could figure something else out. I’d find work in an adjacent field, hell maybe even go back to school.
I was getting ahead of myself, though. It’d been something I would do even as a kid. I’d think of the worst-case scenario and worry myself sick over when and how it would happen. The thing was… most times, it never happened. That never helped me learn to regulate my negative thoughts. It was equally as likely, sometimes more so, that the positive outcome would happen before anything negative occurred. So I had to focus on that, and to manifest the positive even when the world trained us to focus on the negative.
Dylan walked out of his house, showing me just how powerful manifestation really was.
I’d been dreaming of a guy like him. And here he was. Strolling over wearing the perfect pair of blue jeans and a cute navy blue polo with a white stripe around the collar and sleeves. It reminded me of the white stripe that crossed over his eyebrow and continued down the side of his buzzed hair. I was so taken by him that I hadn’t even realized he was holding something in his hands until he got into the car and was handing it over to me.