Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Time for a walk-back. “Sounds complicated.”
“It is.”
I didn’t want to push any harder and ruin the gentle routine we’d fallen into, so I decided to ask him how he’d come to adopt Bucky. That had been the ticket, and he started telling me all about how he’d been back here for about three months and started getting antsy about being alone all the time. At the same time, he couldn’t stomach the idea of getting some place in town, not when being around people—any people—sent him into such a tailspin.
It was a feeling I knew well, and the idea of being torn in those two different directions was certainly enough to drive you crazy. I told him so, and he grinned.
“Then,” he said, “I went down to Hank’s shop one day, and it turned out that someone had abandoned a German Shepherd mother and her puppies out behind the garage the night before. Hank had taken them to the local shelter. I don’t know what made me go there because I wasn’t really thinking about getting a dog, but our eyes met and that was it. I knew he was coming home with me.”
I laughed. “Love at first sight, huh?”
He smiled back at me before reaching down to rub Bucky behind the ears. “Only time it’s ever happened.”
“Why’d you name him Bucky?”
“After Bucky Barnes,” he said, scratching the dog under the chin.
Interesting. If he was an Avengers fan, he’d certainly picked a specific and unique choice. I would’ve thought someone like him would’ve gone with Rogers and played up the whole Captain America thing. Although…
“Do you see yourself as a Winter Soldier?” The words came out before I could help them, and his eyes snapped up to mine in surprise. Surprise, but no recrimination.
I kept going. “Someone who’s been irrevocably changed—some say damaged—but still worthy of redemption?”
He swallowed. “I wouldn’t have taken you for an Avengers fan.”
I shrugged. “Cooking, Avengers… I’m a woman of many layers. I’m like Shrek—peel back a layer of my onion and you never know what you’ll find.”
The shock and borderline anger faded from his face at that, and I was rewarded with a smile at that. “Like early 2000s cartoon references?”
“Exactly.”
He grinned at me, reaching forward to pull me on top of him for our usual make-out session, pressing a deep kiss to my lips as if he was dying to taste me. “I can think of something else that I’d rather peel off.” His hands reached for the hem of my shirt, and he met my eyes carefully to make sure it was okay with me. My heart gave a painful thump at that, as if he’d jump-started it, and I smiled down into his mouth. The fact that he was being so cautious with me, despite the fact that we’d already gone as far as we could go…
“Go for it.”
When I woke up the next day, I felt satisfied and replete… and more than anything else, I was quite disconcerted by it. I was getting extra comfortable here, and as I sat up in bed, the thought suddenly struck me that I could actually see my life unfolding here, every day, as it had… except for the fact that I wouldn’t be waking up in this bed, but in the one down the hall, with Dillon’s big hands wrapped around me and coaxing me awake in the morning.
I pushed back the covers and stood up, pulling out the knot that I always kept my hair in while I slept to keep it off the back of my neck, thinking about everything that we’d talked about the night before and how I was starting to feel so comfortable with him.
I’d lived in my crappy apartment for about two months, and the two months I’d spent there had never felt like home. But the two weeks I’d spent here had started feeling more like home than anywhere I’d ever lived, and that scared the crap out of me.
I’d never been with anyone as good in bed as he was, but that was only part of it. Last night, after he’d peeled off my shirt slow enough to drive me completely insane, I’d almost begged him to fuck me, but instead, he’d fingered me on the couch, teasing the reactions out of me slowly, maddeningly. Then, when I’d gone to take it further, he’d shaken his head, getting up and taking the dishes to the sink to clean up.
I had to look after him as he walked, and I could just tell that that man was so smug over my reaction, but I wasn’t going to let him win. I got up, shook off the aftershocks, and went to go help him with the cleanup. When we’d finished, I clapped him on the shoulder and gave him a cheerful goodnight before walking down the hallway to my room and shutting the door. I hadn’t looked behind me as I walked away, but I’d felt his eyes on me the whole way.