Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 131728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
My blood boils.
“Seriously?” Rebecca whispers.
“Ugh.” I try to change the subject. “So John’s at work?” I ask.
Rebecca lets out a deep sigh. “Apparently.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“I don’t know.” She sips her wine. “We went away last weekend and had sex once, and even then I initiated it.”
“Maybe . . .” I try to think of an excuse for his behavior. “Maybe his hormones are just out, and he isn’t equipped to want it all the time. It happens to men, you know. Especially if they are under stress.”
“Maybe,” she agrees. “Whenever I ask him what’s wrong, he tells me that exact excuse, that he’s under a lot of stress and just isn’t in the mood and that it has nothing to do with me because he loves me more than anything.”
I watch her for a moment. “Do you believe him?”
“Whose footprints were in the back seat of his car, Jules? No matter how many excuses I can make for him, I can’t deny what I saw.”
“I don’t know.” I sigh. I don’t blame her for being worried. I would be overthinking this, too, if I were in her shoes.
A voice sounds from behind us. “Ladies.” We turn to see Mason slink into the chair beside us.
“Hi.” I smile. I glance up to meet Henley’s unimpressed eyes.
Ha. Now you know how it feels.
Henley
“Oh, Henley,” Taryn says softly. “I’ve just been so . . . lonely lately, you know?”
Blake’s eyes meet mine, and he raises a brow as he waits for my response.
“You should buy yourself a vibrator,” I reply as I watch Mason talk to Juliet.
The fuck is he playing at?
Blake chuckles at my reply.
“What do you guys do when you’re like”—she pauses for effect—“super horny and don’t have a partner?”
“I find one,” I reply. Across the fire Mason laughs and puts his hand on Juliet’s leg. My skin bristles.
Don’t fucking touch her.
“I’ll get us some drinks.” Taryn smiles. “What do you guys want?”
“Whatever,” I reply, my eyes still locked on my girl across the fire.
Calm down.
Taryn takes off into the house, and I sip my beer as I try not to watch them.
Blake stares across the fire, his eyes not leaving a certain someone.
“You know, you really should stop staring at her,” I whisper.
“Why?”
“Because she’s fucking married.”
“Do I look like I care?”
“You should,” I snap.
“I can’t help it,” he whispers.
“Try harder.”
Blake has a thing for Rebecca. Whenever she’s close, he can’t take his eyes off her.
And it’s not good. She’s married to someone who lives in our street. A colleague of his, no less.
“What happened the other week when you were drinking cocktails on Juliet’s porch when we went out?” I ask.
“She was as tempting as ever.” He rolls his eyes. “Their friend has fucked it for me, though.”
“What friend?”
“Chloe. She’s all over me like a rash, ruining my chances with her.”
“There are no chances with her. Rebecca is married.” I widen my eyes. “Don’t fucking go there.”
He sips his beer, unimpressed. “Where is her dickhead husband anyway? He’s never around.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Typical.” He rolls his eyes. “The one woman I can’t have is the only one I fucking want.”
I sip my beer. “You only want her because you can’t have her.”
“Oh, fuck off,” he huffs. “You just worry about Little Miss Across the Fire. Mason is making his move on your girl as we speak.”
“Hmm.” My eyes rise to watch them. “Not if I throw him in the fire first.”
He chuckles as if imagining it. “How’s things going with her, anyway?”
Great.
“Okay.” I act uninterested.
“She wearing your balls for earrings yet?”
“Does it look like it?”
He smirks. “It does, actually.”
“Fuck off.” I sip my beer. “At least she’s not married to someone else.”
He fakes a smile and then drops his face dead. “You’re fucking hilarious.”
“I think so.”
Mason keeps chatting to the girls, and I’m done watching this shit. I take out my phone and text Juliet.
I’m going.
I watch as she takes her phone out of her pocket and reads my message.
My house, half an hour?
I type my reply.
Make it ten.
Juliet
“Hello?” I call to Henley as I walk into my house.
Silence . . .
He must not be here yet.
“Hello, my little buddy.” I smile to Barry as I scratch his chin. “Did you eat your bone?”
Barry walks back over to his bed and flops down. I’m taking that as a yes.
I make myself a cup of tea and head upstairs. I take my jacket off and dump it on the bed, kick my shoes off, and flick the television on. It’s weird how quickly you get into a new routine. I’ve now gotten used to noise up here. I don’t think I even turned the television on in my bedroom before Henley started coming over to watch our show. Now I seem to turn it on all the time. I sit on the end of the bed and flick through the channels as I sip my tea.