Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 63970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63970 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 320(@200wpm)___ 256(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“I do not find that surprising at all,” Kai replied. “So you two didn’t argue?”
“No. We were even doing something together. We bought those DNA tests, the ones that tell you where you come from.” It had been a silly thing to do, but they’d spit in the little vial together one night, making fun of each other over a video chat. She’d teased him telling him she was way better at swallowing. They’d been moving forward. “We were betting on who was going to have the more boring ancestry.”
“And then she refused to talk to you?”
“I was gone for three weeks filming in Asia. It’s a streaming movie that comes out next summer. We were in a pretty remote spot and I wasn’t able to keep in touch. But I’d told her I would call her when I got back. I was going to ask her to come out and see me. I thought we’d gotten to be friendly again and maybe it was time to move into something more. I’d cleaned up my personal life entirely. You remember my friend, the one I pretended to date to keep the press off both of us? Well, I explained I couldn’t do it anymore because I needed Sarah to understand she would be the only woman in my life. I was going to explain this to her but when I got back to the States, she refused to take my calls.”
“Something happened,” Kai mused. “Recently. She’s been quieter than normal. When I ask, she simply smiles and tells me nothing’s wrong and I’m being too ‘shrinky,’ as she puts it. That is not a technical term, by the way.”
But it sounded very much like a Sarah term. She was utterly adorable. “She finally replied to an email I sent about the documentary. She agreed to do the interview but she demanded more cash and asked that I not call her again until it was time to film. I don’t understand. She seemed like she was getting over it.”
“Getting over you dumping her?” Kai asked in that tone that let him know he’d said something stupid. “You know that’s a dumbass move when you’re in love with a woman. She tends to take exception.”
He’d had his reasons. They’d seemed like good ones at the time. “I had just found out my friend was a killer and that she’d been his next victim. I had to watch him die. He deserved it, but he was still a big part of my life. Yeah, I needed a time-out. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still want her. It doesn’t mean I don’t think about her every minute of the day. I’ve been celibate. I haven’t touched another woman since before I met her.”
Two and a half years. He hadn’t had sex in two and a half years. Before he’d met Sarah he hadn’t gone two weeks without. The problem was he knew she was the one and he couldn’t cheat on her. If he had any shot at winning her back, at showing her they could work, he had to be serious about their relationship. Even when it didn’t exist.
Kai was staring at him with something akin to awe. “Are you serious?”
Jared nodded. “I’m in love with her. It’s wrong to sleep with someone else. This is my last shot. If she can’t find a way to forgive me for walking out the first time, then I’ll try to move on. But I want this chance with her.”
“Well, it’s your lucky day because Ian Taggart called before you came in and wanted me to put together Doms and subs for this big party thing he’s throwing for Charlotte’s birthday…of course. How does he see these things before I do? He knew you were in town, right?”
Big Tag had been one of his first calls. “I asked him if we could do some filming in the building since it’s part of the story.”
“He’s a smart asshole. Well, brother, looks like you get your chance.”
Jared breathed a sigh of relief as Kai started to explain. This was his shot and he was taking it.
Chapter Two
In which our heroine receives an invitation to the ball…
“What do you think it means? Is Charlotte seriously having a birthday party that lasts three days? That’s pretty legit.” Sarah Stevens stared down at the beautifully engraved invitation that had been dropped off at her apartment earlier in the day. “Did you get one?”
She stood in front of her locker at Sanctum, still wearing her scrubs. It had been a long shift and she was looking forward to some play. She wished she was looking forward to some crazy sex, but that wasn’t happening.
Of course Jared Johns was in town. He was precisely the reason she hadn’t had any freaky sex in a very long time. The idea of calling him up whispered across her mind. She could sleep with him, spend the weekend in bed with him, and then he would be gone. It wasn’t like she was taking any big risks. He would go back to his Hollywood life and she would…she would do what she had to do. No muss. No fuss.