Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
It was honestly amusing to watch them go at it, but we didn’t have time for them to be at each other’s throats tonight. I hadn’t seen Milly in weeks, and I wanted to make the most of her company.
“Let’s just find a nice bar and get some drinks,” my sister said to break the tension. “Preferably somewhere not too far away. These shoes are killing me.”
“Here, take my arm,” Theo offered, and Nuala shot him a grateful smile before slotting her arm through his.
We found a place that looked decent, and I helped Milly onto a stool before asking her what she’d like to drink. If tonight was going to be one of our last together, then I was going to make the most of it.
“I’ll take a vodka and orange juice,” she replied, head bobbing to the music.
“Coming right up.”
***
It might not have turned into the best night of our lives, but it was certainly a memorable one. Milly and I laughed and joked, and we danced and drank until the small hours of the morning when all seven of us piled into two separate taxis.
“Everyone should come back to our house,” Nuala said from where she sat in the front seat next to the driver. “Our parents are away for the weekend. I’ll text the others.”
My parents were away, and my brother Tristan was spending the summer in Galway teaching kids how to play rugby at a sports camp. Still, with how I was feeling right then, having Milly at our house might not be a smart move. All night, I’d struggled to keep my hands off her. Dancing with her had been the perfect excuse to slide my palms along her curvy hips as we swayed to the music. She smelled incredible, and her body felt so soft and warm next to me in the back of the taxi. It was all I could do not to fantasise about unzipping the back of her dress, letting it fall to the floor before I climbed over her and showed her just how much I’d been craving her.
In the end, I didn’t protest going back to ours. I wanted to savour every moment with Milly while I still could. At the house, we made a beeline for the kitchen, Nuala disappearing into the pantry to find some alcohol to keep the party going.
I felt pressure at my side and found Milly leaning into me as she let out an adorable little yawn. I smiled at her in affection and arched an eyebrow. “Tired?”
She grinned sheepishly. “A little.”
I slid my arm around her middle. “Come on. You can lie down in my room.”
“You’re the best, Derek,” she said, still grinning up at me as I led her upstairs. She was drunk, and so was I, which meant I had absolutely no intention of making a move. Although I would admit that the idea of Milly sleeping in my bed—even without me in it—was satisfying in a way I hadn’t felt before. I wanted her scent on my pillow, her skin warming my sheets.
She’d been in my room a bunch of times, mostly just to hang out. Sometimes we’d sit together, and Milly would study while I did my college coursework. I was studying for a degree in business. The plan was always for my brother and me to take over running the hotels for Dad when he retired, and I was fully on board with that. I knew some people resented having to take up the family business, but I wasn’t one of them. In fact, I’d inherited my dad’s passion and hoped to one day open even more Balfe Hotels across the country.
Perhaps it was because I looked up to my dad so much. He was the sort of man I wanted to emulate when I got older.
For a moment, I imagined the future, but there wasn’t some faceless woman at my side who I hadn’t met yet. No, the only person I imagined sharing that future with was Milly.
The realisation wasn’t entirely shocking, not when I’d spent the last year living like the monk Aidan often liked to refer to me as, which was troubling. This could simply be young love, something I would be able to move on from with time. But what if it wasn’t? What if Milly was the only woman I ever felt this way for? The only one who made me feel lit up from the inside out, whose energy seemed to complement mine so perfectly? She’d captured a part of my soul that day on the playground when she’d confidently tended to my brother. Maybe she’d stolen my heart that very same day and had been in possession of it ever since.
“Wait a second,” I said when Milly pulled back the covers to climb into my bed. She paused as I went and opened a drawer, pulling out one of my old T-shirts that would probably work as a nightie for her. “Wear this.” A pause as I soaked her in. “You’ll be more comfortable.”