Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“She’s been acting weird” was all he said. Maybe my gut instinct had been right and she was just being the same mean girl I used to go to school with, the one who would do anything to nail the popular guy and keep him for herself.
Besides.
He’d kissed me.
Maybe if I just kept repeating it, I’d finally believe that it was possible Rip had feelings for me, real feelings.
Things had shifted between us so much in the last week, and after that kiss… my entire body felt like I was going to do something stupid any minute, like kiss him again or just accidentally slip while doing dishes and collapse against him to see if he caught me. Yeah, bad idea. Stupid idea.
Or the best idea ever?
“What do you mean ‘weird’?” I asked, moving dishes toward the sink and trying to act as nonchalant as possible.
How was he acting so normal after kissing me?
“Heather”—I couldn’t tell his mood by the way he said her name—“was… just… strange today. We had a talk in the car, and I’m starting to think that working for me might not be the best fit for her, you know? I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Something just seems… off.”
I nearly dropped the plate I was holding as I shakily brought it to the sink. “Did she do something illegal?”
“No.” He barked out a laugh. “Nothing illegal.”
“Did she… do something wrong?” I was totally reaching, but I was curious about what she’d done in all her perfection to make him even contemplate letting her go or having that conversation. It clearly wasn’t the burrito or the coffee. I was being obsessive about it, needy for details because I knew it would at least help me understand where he was at.
“She does everything right, but that’s not the point. Maybe doing everything right means you’re wrong, and clearly I’m exhausted.” He shrugged it off. “Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it or work.” He walked toward the sink, his hand brushing my hip like he meant to do it. I tensed and looked up at him. His eyes locked on mine with an intensity that my poor heart needed. His look said, It’s not her.
Weird how a look can do that. I swallowed my nerves and attempted to act as normal as possible.
I clutched the plate and started vigorously scrubbing it clean, not even realizing that he’d come up behind me. He put his hands in the dish soap, helping me stroke across the ceramic, and apparently I wasn’t just cleaning it off for the dishwasher, I was going to stay in that spot forever, with that plate, and with him behind me.
Back and forth, back and forth. He held my hands firm, his body pressed up against my back. “She made an offer I had to refuse.”
“O-oh?” I swallowed. “What was that?”
“A perfectly boring life where Legos don’t exist.”
“I thought you wanted a perfectly boring life where Legos don’t exist.” Throat suddenly dry, heart pounding, I tried to focus on the dish and nothing but the dish, but he was close, so close, and the kiss was still fresh in my mind, as was her invading our family space earlier.
“Yeah, well…” His lips grazed my ear. “Things change. It was a hard day only because I had a lot of thinking to do and had an extremely difficult time doing so.”
“Hope you didn’t strain a brain cell,” I teased nervously. I was so going to drop a plate and kill the moment.
“Nah, I’m feeling pretty strong right now,” he snapped right back, his lips grazing my neck in a kiss that had my entire body shuddering with delight.
“What are you doing?” I asked quietly, afraid of rejection, afraid of acceptance, just afraid of everything as he spun me in his arms and started kissing me.
My hands were wet from dish soap.
I had bubbles on my shirt, slime probably still in my hair.
And Rip didn’t care.
He kissed me hard, his tongue sliding past my lips, taking control of how deeply he was kissing me as I arched up against him, my arms sliding around his neck as he pulled me up onto the counter next to the sink and wrapped my legs around his waist.
He was hard where I was soft.
He was clearly aroused.
I needed more of his taste.
His touch.
Everything seemed to click into place in one messy moment.
Maybe that was how it was always supposed to be.
“Uncle Rip!” Ben yelled downstairs. “We’re ready for bed!”
“Me too.” Rip’s eyes sparkled as he kissed me one last time. “Me too.”
“Someone’s being spontaneous.”
“Someone found that stick up his ass and burned it.”
“Painful.”
“Necessary.”
“Better?”
He nipped at my lips again. “You have no idea.”
I groaned, jerking him by the shirt to meet his lips, and then, “Aunt Colby! I’s ready for bed story!”