His laughter resonates right in my belly. “Somehow, I doubt that.”
“You tryna say I’m difficult?” I slap my hand against my chest.
“Challenging,” he leans down to whisper in my ear. “In the best way.”
Without waiting for a response from me, he grabs my hand and pulls me over to the comfortable sofa in the lounge area. While I’m dying to open the book I haven’t had time to read since I started it weeks ago, I don’t make a move to pull it out of my bag. My focus keeps drifting to this enigma of a man, wondering how the hell we got here and how we’ll ever go back to the status quo.
He starts to walk away but I clutch his hand.
“Wait.”
“What’s up?”
“Where are you going?”
His chest rumbles with a low laugh. “Leaving you to read as planned.”
When I don’t say anything he sits beside me on the sofa, man-spreading as he does, and leans his arm against the back of my seat. “J?”
I swallow my next words in a big gulp and turn to face him. “Yeah?”
“I didn’t bring you here to entertain me. I brought you here so you could relax…properly. So, go ahead and pull out your book and ignore me for whatever fictional world you’re jumping into.”
“I feel so bad, though.”
“Because?”
“Because you did all this for me and I’m about to forget about your entire existence once I crack open that book. What are you gonna do?”
His jaw tenses. “First of all, you need to stop worrying about other people for a second. You don’t have to repay people for every little thing they do for you. The people who really fuck with you don’t give a shit about that. Second, if you’re so worried about how I’m gonna spend my time on this boat, run me a book then.”
My brow piques. “What?”
“Let me hold one of your books so I can read with you.”
“You wanna read with me?”
He lifts his eyebrow to match mine. “You don’t think I can read?”
“I mean, hey, I wasn’t there with you in school. I don’t know what you know and don’t know.” He pinches and tickles me on the sides, making me fall over with tears of laughter. “Okay! Okay! I’m just saying I mostly read romance so I wasn’t sure if you knew what you were getting yourself into. Although, I do read thrillers too. I have the latest Ciara Jeffries release with me if you wanna read that.”
“Mhm. What are you reading right now?”
“I’m reading the second book in this series by A.R. Washington. It’s a fake dating book which is one of my favorite tropes. I started it a few weeks ago, but between work, research, and helping Ri with wedding stuff, I haven’t had a chance to go back to it. I’ve been fiending for it though because the man is already a top-tier book boyfriend and I need another dose.” I cut myself off because I can hear my voice becoming too high-pitched to understand. Once you get me started on books, I can go on forever.
“The first book is about the same couple?”
“No. They’re interconnected stand-alones. The series is about these three nurses who are all best friends and work at the same hospital. The first book in the series is about one of the other friends and the doctor she works with so it’s a little forbidden.”
“You have that one with you?”
“It’s on my Kindle, yeah.”
“Give me that one, then.”
He holds his hand out, expectantly. What in the entire fuck is going on? If there’s one thing I’m learning about Rome, though, it’s to not underestimate him, so I reach into my bag and pull out my Kindle. Once I have the book he asked for pulled up, I turn it over to him. The cover shows a couple in scrubs standing back-to-back, but the tops of their heads are cut off.
He studies it for a moment and then pushes my sternum so I’m leaning all the way back against the couch and lifts my legs so I’m resting comfortably on the sectional portion. Then he lays his head in my lap.
