Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
If he were anyone else, I would’ve thought he was putting me on, buttering me up even, but this was Mace. I knew he meant every word, and he could have no idea what it did for my self-esteem.
Since then, I’ve tried any number of scenarios to see just how potent that effect was. The very next night, I waited until we’d finished dinner at his place, and he’d walked away to take a phone call that he claimed was very important. Maybe I could’ve chosen a better time, but when was it best to prove a point if not now?
As soon as he walked into his home office, I headed for the bedroom and slipped out of the robe I’d put on after my shower before dinner and pulled on a pair of jeans, one of about six he’d bought me, with another one of the silk tees that fit like a second layer of skin and showed my girls off to perfection.
I grabbed a pair of tennis shoes from the three he’d bought me and headed back down the hallway, choosing to stop in front of the open door to his office to bend over and tie the laces. I hope whoever was on the other end of the line was done talking because the next thing I heard was, ‘let me call you back later with that,’ and then the scraping of his chair as he stood.
I started to run away from the door like I didn’t know what was going on, but he caught up with me before I was even five feet away. “Oh no, you don’t.”
“No, I don’t what? What’re you talking about?” I kept my face as void as I could while trying hard not to laugh. That’s another thing about being with Mace; he makes me as giddy as a schoolgirl, something else I’d missed out on because of my size.
He'd caught me around the middle, and I hung there suspended with his hand just beneath my breasts, and my ass pressed into his groin. That time he’d taken me down right there in the hallway doggie style, which seems to be his favorite position these days. And that’s how it’s been pretty much this whole week.
I forgot all about my troubles with my ex and his mom or anything else for that matter. The little hiccups at work that would’ve usually made me fret more than was warranted barely registered to the point that even the staff were catching on that something was up if the two men Mace had planted at my business door wasn’t enough for that.
Surprisingly, no one mentioned them, so I’m pretty sure Xavier had already talked to them, or who knows. The second time Mace came to pick me up that week for lunch, there were a lot of people on diets because no one, as far as I could see, had gone to lunch, and most of them seemed to need something from my office or nearby.
I knew they were trying to get a look at him and was amazed to find that I had become one of those women. You know, the type that finds pleasure in showing off her man like he was a prized possession. I’ve never felt confident enough to feel that way, not even when I was married. The fact that Mace didn’t pay them any mind, not even the skinny beautiful ones, only made me prouder.
By the time the weekend rolled around, I was like a whole new person. It wasn’t any one thing that I could put my finger on, but I felt the difference in myself. I still wasn’t brave enough to face my ex-monster-in-law or her son on my own because of the trouble Mace had caused them, but I no longer felt like a shadow of myself, and all it had taken was spending time with Mace.
We did everything together that week, especially once he found out that I could cook. I wanted to strangle Nat the night she let it slip when the four of us were out together, but his reaction since had me looking for a suitable gift for her. I probably would’ve spent the rest of our time together eating out since the last time I tried to cook for a man, all I got were complaints, but I should’ve known better.
My ex was the only person who ever complained about my cooking, and somehow his displeasure had overshadowed the praise I’d been getting for years from others. Isn’t it funny how that works? But Mace’s reaction rebuilt my confidence in myself. “You can do this, and you’ve got me running around town eating subpar food?”
“Oh, stop, it’s not that good.”
“Babe, are you being serious, or are you fishing for compliments? Where did you learn to cook like this?” You’d have thought someone had just crowned me Miss somebody the way I preened and smiled like a simpleton; that was genuine awe in his voice.