Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 106150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“Wait. One more thing.” I took a deep breath and screwed up the courage to set a critical boundary even though my gut—and my heart—wanted nothing more than to make this man’s dreams come true. “Look, I cannot hear your pitch, okay? I am not going to put in a good word for your project to the development group at Sterling Chase. I don’t want that between us.”
Big brown eyes blinked at me. “No, of course. Shit. I’d never ask you to do a special favor for me.”
That was what everyone said. Maybe it was even what everyone wanted to believe about themselves. But I knew for a fact that people could and would and did.
Rowe, however different and special he might be, was not immune.
“Also… I can give you contact information for plenty of people at incubators here in town who are decent humans. Please don’t pursue Justin Hardy anymore. He’s unscrupulous, and I don’t want him to take advantage of you.”
Rowe bit down on his bottom lip… which made me want to free it so I could bite on it myself. “Thanks for offering, but you don’t have to do that, Bash. I’ve already contacted more than a dozen companies, and there was no interest—”
“I know a lot more than that,” I insisted.
“Now you’re just bragging,” he teased, but he sobered quickly. “I think you’ve got the right idea. Let’s not talk about business or any of this tonight, except…” He twisted in his seat until he’d gotten to his knees and pressed a hand to my cheek, forcing me to look at him—as if I could possibly look away. “I know we’ve both told a lot of lies in the past day, but I’m truly sorry for my part in it, Bash.”
I tugged on his hand until he got the message and moved over to my lap, straddling me and wrapping his arms around my neck. The edges of his lips turned up, and his eyes danced.
“I’m sorry for your part, too,” I said with a grin. Rowe’s mouth opened in indignation, but I pressed his lips with a finger. “Let me finish, tiger. I can’t honestly say I’m sorry I pretended to be your PA. Truthfully, I wanted an excuse to spend more time with you. I find you incredibly, overwhelmingly attractive, Rowe Prince.” I paused, watching the emotions play over his face. Shock, disbelief… hope. “I want you naked in my bed.”
Rowe’s eyes widened again, and his cheeks flushed. “You do?” His voice came out breathy and unsure.
I nodded and leaned forward to brush his nose with mine. He was intoxicating. My brain cells had clocked out and fucked off to god-knew-where. My body was now fully under new management, and it was taking all of my self-control not to start ripping Rowe’s clothes off.
“That kiss in the stable,” I murmured before brushing my lips along his jaw, “was entirely too short.”
“Y-yes.” His voice was even breathier now, and his chest heaved between us.
I kissed the edge of his lips. “Stay with me. Just for this weekend. No business. No lies. Just the two of us. Just… this.”
“Yes,” he breathed again, turning his face to brush our lips together more fully. “Please.”
Kissing Rowe felt like a strange kind of high, one in which I was euphoric but still sharply lucid. I catalogued every detail, from the heady mix of soap and the faint trace of hay coming from him to the little sounds of submission he made in his throat. The tiny plastic buttons on his shirt were a Sisyphean task for my shaking fingers. When one finally cleared its buttonhole, another three seemed to take its place.
“Want you,” I admitted, inhaling the warm skin behind his ear before pressing my lips there. “Wanted you from the moment you skidded into me at the gala.”
His fingers tugged on the hair at the back of my neck. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he admitted. “But I want you, too.”
I cupped his face and met his eyes. “Have you been with a man before?”
His cheeks were already patchy pink from our kissing, but they darkened as he spoke. “N-not really,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to, and it definitely wasn’t for lack of trying.” He let out a nervous laugh. “Back in Linden… well, there weren’t a lot of opportunities.”
Too bad for the assholes of Linden. Their loss was definitely my gain.
I ran my thumbs across his warm cheeks. Making him feel safe was a priority. “What do you want tonight? We’ll only do what you feel comfortable with.”
Rowe let out a soft laugh. “Uh… everything? My sex resume includes a couple of hand jobs with guys who turned out to be jerks. I promise anything we do tonight will be a thousand times better… Honestly, it already is.”