Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 578(@200wpm)___ 462(@250wpm)___ 385(@300wpm)
“I’m feeling a little too good, Mike.” Rayne’s sensual voice enveloped him like black velvet. “That’s why I don’t think it’s a good idea that I straddle your big sexy motorcycle and let you drive me home.”
Mike stroked his thumb along the tender skin on Rayne’s wrist before he loosened his hold and released him. A car pulled up to the curb and honked, but Mike didn’t turn around.
“Wood sent an Uber for me, so…” Rayne released a steady stream of warm air along his throat. “I had a very nice evening, Mike.”
Should I ask him if he wants another one? Mike didn’t know what to take away from this brief encounter, from that touch. Was Rayne interested in him or not? This was nothing like when Mike met a woman he wanted to be with. He’d just ask her for her number, then call her a few days later for a quick date, and then it was back to her place. Sometimes there was a second and third go at it, but definitely by the fourth tryst, they were good and done with him and his foul attitude. Mike was sure that it wasn’t going to happen that way between him and Rayne.
Mike fired his shot one last time. “So… are you up for the challenge of dating a man like me?”
Rayne gave him a sad smile before he headed toward his ride. To Mike’s own damn surprise, he followed behind him, feeling hopeful and pathetic as fuck at the same time. Rayne paused after he opened the back door, and when he turned around to face him, Mike was right there.
Rayne grasped one of Mike’s hands and with deliberate slowness placed it on his soft cheek. His skin felt like fine linen against Mike’s rough palm. Rayne damn near vibrated under his touch as his eyelashes lowered, shielding some of the melancholy in his eyes. His words came out low and tinged with hurt. “Mike. It’s not me that needs to answer that question.” Rayne did some suave, sexy shit and kissed the inside of Mike’s calloused hand, then hurried and closed himself inside the Uber.
Mike stood there on the curb, riveted, enamored, and horny as hell until the taillights turned off Edison’s street. He clenched the fist that Rayne had just rubbed along his cheek like a man starved for physical contact.
It’s not me that needs to answer that question, Mike replayed over again in his head. Rayne considered this Mike’s choice, and he believed he understood what Rayne was asking him.
Was he up for the challenge of being with a sex addict?
Mike wouldn’t be able to half-ass this relationship like he’d done all the others. The women he’d dated had been right. Mike stayed emotionally unavailable to everyone except his family.
He nodded to himself, resolve settling in. He was more than capable of being a good partner, a good man, to Rayne despite the doubters. All right. I’m about to show all of you motherfuckers how this shit’s done. Good thing Mike was already on the job. First, he’d help Rayne out of the depressing funk he was trapped in. Then he could go to phase two of his plan—once he made one.
Without glancing in the direction of the house, Mike threw his middle finger up at Wood, who he’d felt watching them from the window the entire time. He couldn’t believe that disloyal bastard had tried to warn Rayne away from him. Damn. You put a blade to a man’s jugular one time and he acts like he can’t fuckin’ let it go.
Mike shoved his helmet over his head and started his bike. He didn’t rev his engine out of respect for Edison’s neighbors as he cruised out of the nice suburb. He rode straight home, grabbed a beer and his laptop, and settled into his recliner for a long night of research. Despite how much his son and Wood had pissed him off tonight, they’d been right. Mike needed to really know what the hell he was getting himself into.
Chapter Fifteen
Mike
“Mike, what the hell is up with you?” Manny asked from the driver’s seat. “What’d you do this weekend? You’ve been dragging ass all day. And you look like you slept on the street last night.”
Mike didn’t answer. What could he say to his best friend? That he’d spent his entire weekend researching sex addicts and their recovery until his eyes blurred?
“Or did you finally find someone to do this weekend?” Manny watched him out of the corner of his eye while he drove them back to the shop. “She wear you out?”
Mike wished it were that simple. Wished that a quick one-and-done still did it for him, but he was too old for all of that now. It was played out and boring. He felt very little to nothing when he had those faceless fucks in the back seat of his truck or at their place. Sometimes, he didn’t even bother remembering their name… not that they remembered his either.