Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“Ugly Christmas sweater party… I’ll have to sit that one out. I forgot my ugly Christmas sweater,” I tell her.
She laughs. “You wish it was that easy. I made you one, so you’re good to go.”
“Haha! I see how it is.” I roll onto my back because lying next to her, looking at her is just too tempting.
She rolls to her back too. “Goodnight, Baker.”
“Goodnight, sweetie.”
I lie there for a long time and listen to her next to me. She’s way over on her side, and I don’t dare turn toward her because I know I’ll reach for her. No matter how bad I want her, I won’t take advantage of the situation.
Tara
Buzz. Buzz.
A sound startles me awake, but I don’t dare move. I’m cocooned in heat with arms and legs wrapped around me. I freeze against Baker. He’s pressed against my back, but I can’t blame him because I’m completely on his side of the bed.
The noise starts again, and Baker’s gruff voice is right next to my ear. “That’s my phone.”
“Do you want to get it?” I ask him.
His hand tightens on my breast, and he sighs heavily. “No, there would have to be a bomb to get me to move right now.”
“Baker…” I start nervously. I know I should move. We reached for each other in the middle of the night obviously and just stayed to share each other’s heat. We should move. Why isn’t he moving?
“I’m sorry, Tara. I said I could handle sleeping in the bed next to you, but obviously I should have told my body that.” He shifts his hips, and I feel his hard manhood pressed against my buttocks. He’s hard… for me.
“Uh…” I stammer, unsure what to say. He starts to move away from me, but I know that even though I don’t know what to say, I do know that I don’t want him to move away. “No. Stay.”
He groans and rests his forehead on the top of my head. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
I move my lower body just an inch, wanting him to be close to me again, and he groans. “Tara, I’m not playing. I’m trying to do right by you, and feeling your curvy body in my arms, fuck in my hands”—he squeezes my breasts—“well, I’m about to put my good intentions aside.”
I almost tell him that’s okay with me when his phone goes off again.
“Ugh, I’m going to have to get it.”
Deflated, I tell him, “Okay.” I don’t want him to move either.
“Unless you want to grab it and read the text for me,” he says against my ear.
“You want me to read it? What if it’s a girlfriend or something?”
His lips touch the shell of my ear. “I told you I don’t have a girlfriend.” He laughs a little. “Well, now I do. But I don’t think you’re texting me.” He kisses my ear. “You can read my phone. I don’t hide anything from you.”
I reach for the phone, but Baker holds on to me and moves with me as I go across the bed to reach the phone. I lie back down, and he moves his head so he can read it over my shoulder. I try to calm my breath and not reveal how I’m panicking right now. I’m in bed with Baker, and I’m sort of freaking out about it. “It’s from my brother,” he says.
And I know I’ve heard about his foster brother Dawson. He’s the only family that Baker has, and he’s been serving in the army since the day he turned eighteen.
He starts to read the text.
Bro, I’m in Mistletoe. I got in yesterday.
The next text says, I had a visitor show up this morning. Cassie is here.
Text me.
“Yes!” Baker says over my shoulder excitedly.
“What is it?” I ask, turning in his arms.
“Cassie is someone that Dawson’s been talking to for a while. He wasn’t going to see her when he got out, but something must have happened.”
His arms are still around me, and I’m holding the phone between us. “Do you want to reply?”
“Yeah. Uh, good to hear. Don’t mess it up. I’m in Juniper Junction with Tara. I’ll see you after Christmas. Love you, bro. Merry Christmas.”
I type it into the phone and hit send.
Almost as soon as I do, there’s a text back and I read it to Baker. “It’s about fuckin’ time. Merry Christmas Bro! love you too.”
I look at the phone and read the words again. “What does he mean it’s about freakin’ time?” I ask him with my face heated. I barely ever cuss, but I have to know the answer to this.
“It means it’s about time that I made a move on you.”
“Wait. What?” I ask him, wanting him to clarify.
But as soon as he starts to speak, there’s a knock on the door. “C’mon, you lovebirds. Breakfast is ready, and Mom’s freaking out that we’re going to be late to skate.”