Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“I forced him to eat ice cream and he forced me to leave afterward.”
He laughs. “You forced Tyler Hawk to eat ice cream?”
“Oh, come on. Everyone loves ice cream. It was nothing and nothing happened.”
“What about what Allie sensed?”
“He’s been weird with me since I took him that damn ice cream. He doesn’t seem to know how to be friends with a woman. I think it scares him, but you know it’s for the best. He’s my boss, not my friend. I should never have forgotten that.”
“Why did you?”
“That’s easy to answer. When you lost your dad, Dash, you struggled but even so, you had me and Allie. He has no one. It’s that bleeding heart of mine. I think I felt like he was my friend because he’s your friend.”
He just stares at me a moment, as if he reads more into the answer than I thought was there. Finally, he asks, “Why didn’t you come have waffles this past weekend?”
“It wasn’t about Tyler, that’s for sure. I didn’t want to tell you the contract was falling apart, Dash. I didn’t want to let you down.”
“Are you serious? You stayed away because of that?”
“Yes. I just wanted to pull it all together and tell you everything was great.”
“Good, bad, and ugly, Bella. That’s you and me forever. Don’t hide things from me. I did from you, and look where I ended up. In underground fight clubs.”
“And maybe Tyler ends up drowning in a bottle, Dash. If you’re right and he has a problem, we have to help him.”
“What happened to my boss, not my friend?”
My lips purse. “Okay, you have to help him. I have to step back from it.”
“You’re right. You do. Because I do not want you ending up in bed with Tyler Hawk, because as you said, your bleeding heart got involved, and thought that’s what he needed at the time. He has a ‘fuck me tonight’ address book ten miles long.”
“I don’t need this particular lecture. You know that, right?”
“I think you do. I sense it, Bella, and so did Allie. Be careful with Tyler.” He slides my plate in front of me. “And eat your lunch. You need the energy to negotiate my contact.”
My phone buzzes with a text and I snake it from my purse to find Tyler, of all people, on my ID. I click the message and read: I’ll text you when I’m ten minutes from your place. I need your address.
I sent him the information and the exchange ends there. I set my phone down on the table and Dash arches a brow. I pick up my fork. “Tell me about the book you’re writing.”
“There’s no story to tell right now. It’s too soon.”
A little like me and Tyler, I think. We are nothing more than a few lines on the page, or perhaps one paragraph.
Hardly worthy of Dash’s warning of “Be careful with Tyler.”
Yet hours later, those words ring in my head as I finish packing and wait on Tyler to pick me up. I clearly lied to Dash when I told him I didn’t need his lecture. We both knew better. In fact, I’ve been thinking about Dash’s warning and my actions with Tyler for hours.
I am not going to sleep with Tyler Hawk.
The idea that he has an address book ten miles long actually sickens me a bit. I can’t help but wonder how many women he’s shoved against a door. Maybe he can promise a grand orgasm because he has lots of experience. He’s a manwhore. He likes it that way. Let him keep on living his own way. On his own. Alone.
The doorbell rings, and my brows furrow. I’m not expecting a delivery, and according to a text message from Tyler about two hours ago, he’ll text me when he’s outside waiting on me. Maybe I do have a delivery I forgot. I hurry toward the door and when I fling it open, I suck in a breath. Tyler is standing there, right in front of me, in jeans and a snug, long-sleeved sweater that hugs his muscular torso. Our eyes collide and just that easily, I’m tingling with awareness. Dash’s lecture will not save me. There’s no escaping Tyler Hawk. Not anymore. Something has changed between us, really it had changed long before the office door incident, and there is no turning back.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Bella
I quell my nervous energy and force myself to face this moment as if it were any other, not one where my boss who has been between my legs is at my front door. “What are you doing here, Tyler?”
“I thought you might need help with your luggage.”
“I’m not even done packing. You were supposed to text me ten minutes before you got here and you’re twenty minutes early.”
“Invite me in and I’ll wait.”