Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 101758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
“To bring you towels.” I can hear the laughter in his voice. “I found them in the laundry. Sorry. Where do you want them?”
“WRAPPED AROUND MY BODY!”
He’s laughing now, and I hold my hand out.
Thank God, he puts one in that hand, and I hurry to wrap it around me.
“I’ll move out as soon as I get dressed,” I tell him.
“You’re being a little dramatic,” he says with a chuckle. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. I can’t have you seeing me naked. No. Just no.”
“Why the fuck not?”
Now he sounds mad, so I open the door wider so I can see him.
“Because, Xander, you look like that.” I gesture up and down his body. “At the risk of giving you a big head, you look like you’ve been carved out of marble. And I look like . . . this.”
His eyes narrow, and to his credit, they don’t leave my face.
“Go on.”
“It’s self-explanatory.”
“Nope. Say the rest, Ivy.”
I bite my lower lip and drop my gaze, and he steps forward, grips my chin between his thumb and finger, and makes me look him in the eyes.
“Say. The. Rest.”
“I look like me.”
Christ, why did my voice have to crack on that last word?
“Yeah you do. You’re so fucking pretty, Red. All that hair and those big blue eyes. Smooth skin, perfect curves, and fuck. Now I know you have freckles all over your body, and I’m dying to touch them. If you think you’re anything but amazing, you’re wrong. You won’t be leaving, and you have nothing to be bashful about, wildcat. Now, I’ll leave you be so you can get dressed before I lay you out on that bed and fuck you into next week.”
Before I can utter a word, he turns around and walks away, and what just happened?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
IVY
Ican’t sleep.
And it has nothing at all to do with this amazing bedroom and the softest, most cozy bed I’ve ever laid in. Because how could anyone not sleep like a baby angel on a cloud in this room? It’s so pretty and warm and inviting. Ava did a great job decorating this house.
No, there’s nothing here not to like. It’s crazy amazing, and he might have to formally evict me to get me to leave.
Oh God.
I hope I don’t have to formally evict Brenda. I’m not going to think of her as Mom anymore because fuck that. She doesn’t love me. She hasn’t shown me any kind of affection in a really, really long time.
Chris was the one who pretty much raised me when I was a teenager and helped me get through school. Hell, he paid for half of it, and I worked my ass off for scholarships for the other half. He’s a good man, and I don’t blame him for not wanting to be married to Brenda anymore.
Jesus, no one should have to live with her, and the more she becomes dependent on the alcohol, and who knows what else she’s dabbling in, the worse she gets. She’s abusive, full stop, to everyone around her.
Chris sat me down before he filed the divorce papers. Even though I’m an adult, and he’s not responsible for me, he still had a talk with me about leaving, how he just couldn’t handle her anymore, but I could see the guilt in his face.
He’s my dad in every way that matters.
But I told him I understood because I do. It doesn’t mean I don’t resent him a little, for leaving me to be the one who has to take care of her. And the bar. I never had an issue with filling in here and there, but since Chris left, it’s been another full-time job.
“Not anymore,” I whisper as I stare at the ceiling and the shadows cast there by the moon.
The bar is out of the picture for now. But Brenda? God, am I going to have to do this for the rest of my goddamn life? Because I don’t think I can. It’s too much.
Unable to lie here and stare at the ceiling anymore, I climb out of bed and decide to go downstairs to get some water. The house is dark and quiet, but Xander left a light on over the sink. It sits in front of a huge window that looks out back, but it’s so dark outside that I just see my reflection as I fill a glass from the tap.
“I don’t want to startle you.”
I jump a little but manage to keep all the water in the glass and then turn around to find Xander sitting at the island.
“Did I just walk right past you?”
“No. I was in the living room and saw you walk by. You okay?”
I shrug and lean my hips back against the counter, then take a sip of the cool water and watch him. He’s shirtless, and he’s resting his elbows on the island.