Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Yes, you guessed it, I pulled up the voice of my generation.
And played Taylor’s “the 1.”
I cried through the first time I played it.
And the second.
Also the third.
After that, I turned out the lights, didn’t bother with PJs, or (egad!) taking off the rest of my makeup.
No, I lay just as I was, in the dark, alone, tears spent, yearning for what I’d probably never have.
And I did this until I fell asleep.
THREE
“SHAKE IT OUT”
(FLORENCE + THE MACHINE)
My alarm went at the usual time.
Five o’clock a.m.
It was set to classical music, which I found soothing in the morning.
Even if it felt like I’d only had two hours of sleep, and what had occurred the night before came instantly to me with how heavy my eyes felt—not to mention my heart—I rolled from my side to my back.
I didn’t make it all the way because I ran into something.
Something solid.
Something warm.
I stilled, except for my head, which I slowly, very slowly, turned in order to look over my shoulder.
It was before dawn. There was only a shadow there.
But even if I’d never seen the man beside me in my bed in shadow (or otherwise), I knew that shadow.
Javi was lying in bed with me.
“Uncool,” he grunted.
His voice sounding in the silence kickstarted me. I scurried to jump off the bed, but didn’t make it very far before an arm hooked around my belly, I was turned to my side, facing Javi, and he clamped down on me.
And I mean clamped.
With that arm tight around me, a heavy leg thrown over both of mine, and my front pressed to his.
Okay, I’d had many a thought about how this might feel, and some of them came with a certain piece of equipment in my hand.
But not even my wildest imaginings were as good as the real thing.
“Umm…” I mumbled because he might feel great but…
What the heck!
“I texted you last night, and you blew me off,” he declared.
“You’re in my bed,” I whispered, my voice communicating the depths of my shock, which ran so deep, if you followed it, you’d end up treading water in the Indian Ocean.
“Do I have your attention?” he asked.
He so completely did.
“You can’t not have my attention,” I pointed out.
“Goal attained,” he replied.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“Gave you until midnight to respond. You didn’t. Took me about ten to get here, so around ten after midnight. Found you asleep, decided our shit should probably be worked out after some rest with clear heads, so I hunkered down to wait.”
I would not get stuck on the fact he lived only ten minutes away from me, something that gave me a stupid thrill.
Instead, I asked, “You broke into my house?”
“You didn’t answer my knock.”
In other words, he broke into my house!
“So you’ve been lying beside me for the last five hours?” I queried.
“Give or take ten minutes.”
Oh my God.
That was insane.
I voiced my thoughts out loud. “That’s insane.”
His response was to roll on top of me.
On top of me!
He was heavy (very), way more warm than he was just lying beside me, and he gave me a lot of his weight, which squeezed the breath out of me, all while he pulled his phone out of his back pocket.
I was nowhere near being able to process this change in position, especially considering I hadn’t yet processed my earlier position (just FYI, if I had to process on the fly, I would tell you both positions felt otherworldly good, though this one was a thousand times better).
By the time he took some of his weight from me to put it in a forearm beside me, engaged his phone and started reciting, I could barely comprehend what he was saying.
“That was fucked up. I shouldn’t have said that shit. We need to talk. Call me.”
My guess: his texts from last night.
As it was dark, I couldn’t see he was looking at me, I could only feel it.
I hated that it felt good, but there was no way around it.
It felt good.
Any time Javi’s eyes were on me, it felt good.
“So, what have you got to say?” he prompted.
As noted, I was still stuck on earlier stuff.
“You broke into my house in the middle of the night and got in bed with me.”
“I did. I’m here. It’s done, even if I might have lost an inch off my dick from sleepin’ in a room like this. Now, find your way to being with me, Harlow,” he ordered.
It was impossible not to find my way to him since he was my whole world right then.
Though, I thought there were other, more important things to go over.
“You slept beside me?”
“Your bed may be girlie, but it’s comfortable.”
Now I couldn’t process Javi actually slept at my side.
Why that was different than him just lying there, waiting for me to wake up so he could ambush me, I didn’t know.