Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
I do that enough on my own.
Frustration burns through me as I walk into the foyer, through the living room, to head to the study, where the meeting will take place. While I don’t like coming here, I know my way around.
Bea is best friends with Kitty, so I’ve been dragged here to drop off special thread and shit they need for their cross-stitching projects. I turn the corner toward the study, and I’m walking with such purpose and anger that I don’t realize until it’s too late that a body is in my way. I reach out to steady them, grabbing ahold of fleshy hips as my eyes lock with moss-green ones I’ve spent all of my adult life trying, with no luck, to get out of my head. They’re just so green, like a lily pad that floats in a pond up in the mountains. Fable’s eyes widen, her plush mouth opening a bit as her hands land on my biceps to catch herself.
I’m breathless as I look down at her, so deeply affected, I can’t move. All those times I had her hips in my hands when we were younger, I held bone, but that’s not the case anymore. No, her heated flesh feels like a buttery roll I want to devour in one bite. I flex my fingers on her hips, and she takes in a sharp breath, her eyes searching mine.
Fuck, she’s so beautiful. Her hair is curled perfectly around her face. The line of her jaw is sharp, but her sweet cheeks are round and rosy. The gentlest lines surround her eyes, laugh lines, and it’s insane, but I’m jealous of whoever was able to make her laugh to form those lines. It wasn’t me, and that bothers me more than it should.
Suddenly, she steps back, wrapping her arms around her middle but never breaking eye contact.
Say something, I urge myself, but I’m stunned silent.
Fable looks up at me expectantly, and I know I have to say something.
“Ice princess,” I say softly, almost in a whisper, and her eyes widen just a fraction.
I have envisioned this moment since she left, and that’s what I say?
Way to go, dumbass.
The side of her mouth turns up just a bit as she quips back, “Pretty boy.”
Now, it’s my turn to grin. I’m pretty sure the whole reason the girls and Kitty were so supportive of Fable’s and my partnership was their obsession with The Cutting Edge. They made us watch it, and then it was a running joke between us. Our thing. And just like it did when I was fourteen, my stomach flutters at her teasing.
I’ve always wondered if she thought I was pretty.
If she was attracted to me.
Her teeth sink into her bottom lip as she looks down, her cheeks flushing as my stomach continues to flutter like crazy. I inhale a deep breath, my chest rising, before I let it out in whoosh. “How are you?”
She shrugs. “I’m all right. You?”
“Same,” I agree, our eyes meeting once more. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too.” She wraps her arms around her waist a little tighter, and I wish it were my arms holding her. We continue to stare at each other, just like we did yesterday, and I’m captivated by her. I don’t want to look away because I don’t want to forget how gorgeous she is before she walks out of my life once more. Neither of us says a word, nor do we move. We just stare as the air around us thickens.
I can see her mind swirling in her eyes. She’s always been a thinker, her brain working overtime. I find it endearing how her eyes darken, her lips part, and she zones out as she lets her brain take over.
Is she thinking of me?
Is she plagued by the memories of us as I am?
I wonder what she’d do if I took her face in my hands.
Just to feel her sweet cheeks in my palms.
“JT, Fable, we’re ready.”
We both jump, our little bubble popped, before I glance over to find Jami Altrose, the Winthrops’ lawyer, standing in the doorway of the study. I look back at Fable just as she’s turning to head down the hall. I watch as she walks away, taking in the way her ass sways, and my eyes fall shut as my fists clench at my sides.
Why didn’t I say more? Why didn’t I tell her how gorgeous she is? Or how watching her skate last night brought me a joy I didn’t realize I was missing? I should ask her more. Did she enjoy traveling for the Olympic tours? How has her life been? How it’s going, coaching up in Chicago?
Has she thought of me?
Does she miss me?
Anything to keep her in front of me.
Fuck.
That didn’t go how I wanted it, but nothing has ever gone my way when it comes to my ice princess.