Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 95951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“Oh, she likes all the sweets,” Sloane tells him helpfully. “But Boston cream donuts are her other favorite.”
Knox winks at me. “Noted.”
Sloane elbows me and clears her throat. “Thank you for these. That was really sweet.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s a Boston cream.” He lifts the lids of the boxes until a triumphant smile lights up his face. He plucks the donut out of the box, tears a paper towel off the roll on the counter, and hands it to me. “Time to celebrate you, Corie girl.”
“I’ll save it for after dinner.”
“Beckett, I thought you were going to be boring and stay home,” Reid says, stepping into the house. “Ladies, Landry says the meat is done.”
“Thanks, Reid.” I smile. “Can you tell him to bring it inside so everyone can make their plates? There’s no point in carrying all of this out there.”
“Got it, gorgeous,” he says with a flirty smile.
“Montgomery,” Knox growls.
Reid’s laughter follows him outside.
“Right,” Sloane says. “I think I’ll go see if the guys need any help. You know they can get easily sidetracked without proper supervision.”
My gaze follows my best friend’s every step until she’s outside. I know why she’s out there. She’s going to distract them and stall so that I can have a moment alone with Knox. I know how her mind works, but I don’t need that moment.
A moment is scary.
It’s risky.
I’m still staring at the door when Knox steps next to me. The warmth of his body standing so close to mine is comforting in ways it shouldn’t be. It’s as if my body already recognizes his after only sharing a few simple touches.
His hand rests on the small of my back, and he guides me closer, and of course, I go without complaint. There’s nothing but my thin tank top between his hand and my skin, but I feel the heat, almost like a burning sensation through the fabric. It’s always this way when he touches me. My body responds to him in a way it’s never responded to anyone else.
That should be even more reason for me to stay away, but I can’t. Not when he’s this close, and I can smell his cologne. Not when the memory of the way he held me against his truck is still so fresh in my mind.
“Why is it that I can’t stop touching you?” he asks. His voice is low and gruff.
I want to look at him, but instead, I keep my eyes on the island, pretending to be busy. Anyone could look through the window and see us. My body is turned so they’d be unable to see him touching me, but I know he’s touching me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
A low, gravelly chuckle fills the air around us. “You’re sorry for being irresistible? That’s not something to apologize for, sweetheart.”
I shrug. “I guess I’m used to taking the blame.” The words are out before I can stop them.
“Explain that.” His voice is a little harsher than before, but I can still hear the command.
“Nothing.” I wave my hand in the air.
“No. You don’t get to do that. It’s something, or you wouldn’t have said it. You can tell me.”
“My ex was an asshole.”
“Did he hurt you?”
I laugh. “No, he’s too weak for that, but he did like to blame me for him cheating on me.”
“What dumb son of a bitch would cheat on you?”
“He did, and it was my fault, apparently.”
“Tell me you don’t believe him.”
“I mean, maybe a little of it was on me, but he was still the one who cheated.”
“No. There is no excuse for cheating. If he wanted out, he should have ended things. A man, a real man, one who’s not afraid of the hard stuff, would do that. You’re better off without him.”
“I know.” I nod, and then, because I feel like I could tell this man anything, I keep going. “The relationship was convenient. Easy, until it wasn’t.”
“Do you miss him?”
I shake my head. “I miss having someone, but now that I’m on the outside looking in, he wasn’t my someone. Not really. We had dinner and saw a few shows together, but he was never mine. I knew that, and so did he, yet we both still stayed.”
“Why?”
I glance out the door and see Sloane waving her hands in the air, which tells me she’s definitely being the distraction that she assumed we needed, and she was right.
Sloane Peterson is my person.
“He was in the world, or close to it. I knew he wasn’t with me to get closer to Landry. It’s hard to meet new people when your brother is one of the top-ranked wide receivers in the professional football league. I’ve been befriended because of him, used and tossed away when they didn’t get the access they wanted. Guys have pursued me, and when they realized it got them nowhere, I was yesterday’s news.”