Page 8 of Hitting the Gap

“Thanks. I appreciate all your help today.”

“No problem.” It wasn’t in his nature to stand and do nothing, so he crouched down and flipped the lid of the box closest to him. “Is this all books?” That seemed safe enough to unpack.

Bailey grimaced. “Maybe.”

He chuckled. “You only wanted a handful of things out of storage, and one of them was a box of books?”

“Two boxes of books,” she replied. Her cheeks flushed the cutest pink color, making her freckles more pronounced, as she glanced over at him.

She had nothing to be embarrassed about. He just couldn’t imagine needing one box of books, let alone two. “Wow, we definitely have different priorities.” He pushed the box over to the bookcase. “You want any of this stuff left on here or get rid of it all?” he asked, pointing to the knickknacks and book stacks his decorator had artfully displayed on the shelves.

“Umm, maybe see how much space my books take up and you can leave whatever fits.”

“Alright.” Flipping open the lid, he pushed the flaps down so he could start emptying the box. He picked up a textbook and eyed the title. Introduction to Sociology. Made sense since she was a sociology professor.

He scooped up a handful of books and placed them on the bottom shelf next to the textbook. His gaze snared on the next book in the box. Algorithms of Oppression. Geez, nothing like a little light reading.

Growing up, Bailey had always been the brain and he’d been the jock. She’d helped him with school and he’d kept her from being a social pariah. As odd as it was, their friendship had just worked.

He was well aware of the fact that he’d gotten more out of their friendship than she had. If it hadn’t been for her, he wouldn’t have graduated high school and he sure as hell wouldn’t have made it through university. Without Bailey, he never would have figured out he had dyslexia. And that diagnosis had made all the difference for him. Suddenly, he wasn’t just some dumb jock. But as he eyed her reading material, he sure felt like one.

As he finished loading the books from the first box onto the shelves, he could hear Bailey in the walk-in closet hanging her clothing up on the rack. He pulled the second box of books toward himself and flipped it open. A book with a half-naked dude displayed on the cover rested on the top of the box. Interesting. He reached in and pulled out a stack of books and flipped through them. They all had half-naked men on the cover.

Hmm, not so academic, now. He picked up the book on the top of the pile and flipped to a dogeared page. The word clit jumped out at him, and his eyes widened. What the hell was this? He continued to read. Ho-ly shit.

“Busted,” he yelled. “Bailey Reynolds, you’re a perv.” He practically hooted as he looked down at the book in his hands.

Bailey poked her head out of the walk-in closet. “What?”

He couldn’t keep the glee out of his voice. “The first box was all textbooks and academic shit. But this one” — he pointed at the second box he’d pulled up beside him — “this is your lady porn.”

“I don’t have lady porn,” she mumbled.

“Oh, no?” He raised his eyebrow then cleared his throat and read. “Flattening his tongue, he made one long, slow swipe of her pussy. He swirled his tongue around her clit then sucked the hard nub into his mouth, and she bucked off the bed.”

Bailey’s eyes boggled. “Why are you reading my books?”

“Should I not be?”

She covered her mouth and giggled. “No, it’s fine. I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Except you like porn.”

Bailey rolled her eyes. “It’s not porn, it’s spicy romance.”

“I’ll say it’s spicy,” he mumbled. Jesus, the thing described how the guy went down on her, in detail. The passage had been way hotter than anything he’d ever read before. “One girl’s spicy is another guy’s porn, I’m just saying.”

She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “Are you seriously being all judgy about my choice of reading material?”

“Me? No. Fuck. Read away.” Who knew his little Bailey liked to read dirty books? In high school she’d blushed practically every time he took his shirt off and now she was reading this kind of thing. “It just surprised me, that’s all.”

“Mmm-hmm,” she mumbled. She turned on her heel and headed back to the closet. “You can borrow it if you want,” she called over her shoulder.

He eyed the book. Even though he’d learned a bunch of tricks to make reading easier, he still didn’t really love to read. Having to make the effort for something that came so easily to everyone else still made him feel stupid. “Any chance they have an audiobook, because I could definitely get behind that.”

Bailey popped her head out of the closet and glanced at the book in his hand. “That one doesn’t, no. But that one does.” She pointed to the pile of books sitting beside his leg.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

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