Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 147021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 735(@200wpm)___ 588(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 735(@200wpm)___ 588(@250wpm)___ 490(@300wpm)
“Oh, shit.” She grips the edge of the counter. “What’d you do?”
“I tested out my new vibrator while I was there earlier. And I left it on his nightstand,” I whisper. “And I couldn’t get it back, and he’ll find it.” I throw my hands in the air. “I’ll die of embarrassment. I’ll never be able to look him in the eye again.”
“Oh, girl.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket, scaring the shit out of me. “Oh my God. What if he’s found it? What if that’s him and he wants to know why the hell I was masturbating in his goddamn bed?” I might faint from the mortification.
Rix snaps her fingers. “I knew you had the hots for him!”
“What? How the hell did you know that?”
She waves a hand around. “It was a feeling.”
I don’t know how to deal with that, so I let it go for now. “What am I going to do?” I pull the phone from my back pocket. “Oh, thank God. It’s just my dad.” I open the message with shaking hands.
Dado
Pancake House in fifteen with me and Hollis!
Of course he’s joining us today of all days. “Hollis is coming to the Pancake House,” I tell her. “Maybe he hasn’t seen it yet, and you can grab it for me while I’m there.” Otherwise, things are about to get even more awkward.
CHAPTER 3
HOLLIS
I’m still standing in the hallway, staring at the door Peggy disappeared through. Postie winds himself between my legs. “The diner will be awkward.”
Postie meows and trots over to his dish. He plunks his butt down and taps the bowl with his paw. Malone hustles out of hiding to join his brother. I shake out a few treats for my boys before crossing to my bedroom.
I should have warned Peggy that I was home early. Thank fuck I hadn’t come out bare-assed. She looked shell-shocked enough as it was. She’ll probably be embarrassed about the whole thing. She’ll feel compelled to overcompensate by saying sorry a million times and texting repeatedly to make sure it’s safe to come by. I don’t want her to feel bad when it’s on me to warn her. I know her routine. She stops by to check on the cats first thing in the morning and again when she gets back from class. I grab my phone from my bed, intending to send an apology message.
Malone hops onto the nightstand, and something clatters to the floor. He yowls and bounces like he has springs in his feet, tail poofed out as he races out of the room.
“What’s got you so freaked out?” I frown as I bend to pick up the object. “The hell?”
It takes several seconds for me to process what I’m holding. And when it finally clicks, my brain almost liquifies. I’m holding a superhero vibrator. More specifically, I’m holding Peggy’s superhero vibrator. It can’t belong to anyone else because aside from her dad, she’s the only person with access to my penthouse. And she’s the only woman who’s been here in a long, long time, apart from my younger sister and my niece.
So many questions arise. So fucking many questions.
Like why the hell is her vibrator in my goddamn bedroom? On my nightstand.
My mouth goes dry as I stare at my bed with the two cat-shaped dents near the pillows. Then I glance across the room at one of the two kitty cams I set up but didn’t monitor while I was away. I forgot to even mention they were there.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Did she get herself off in my bed? Why would she get herself off in my bed?
Or did she leave it here on purpose to tempt me? No. She could have anyone. There’s no way Peggy wants anything from me. And she can’t know what has been going on in my head over the past several months.
For the past few years Peggy’s been on the periphery of the hockey world, attending university, living in an off-campus apartment, around on weekends when she comes to visit her dad. I only saw her occasionally. She started watching my cats and kept me company during my injury last season, but even those things fit in very specific boundaries. We became friends. It was all fine.
At least until she took an internship position working under Hemi, the head of team PR in September. And then everything changed, even though I’ve tried not to let it.
I’ll never forget the moment I rounded the corner and spotted her doing a hip shimmy down the hall, fist pumping the air. I hadn’t realized whose curves I was admiring at first. Until she spun around, her wide smile aimed at me. It was such a damning moment. I’d been ogling my best friend’s daughter. Since then, I’ve done my best to compartmentalize that event. To force myself to see her the way I’m supposed to. But now here I am, with a whole new battle to face.