Page 18 of To Save Him

I had to ask.  I had toknow.  Surely he hadn’t read more than a couple of chapters, and the super-hot stuff didn’t start until at least a third of the way in.  Plus he wasn’t a regular reader, so I had to believe he wouldn’t make it too far, right?  Even though he’d made it so quickly throughSmolder, I could hope.  “How much of it did you read?”

There was an amused tone in his voice when he spoke.  No way in hell was I going to look over at him. No way in hell.  “I’m almost halfway through the book.”

What the hell?  “Are you a speed reader?”  That would actually be welcome news, because it could indicate less emotional connection to the book.  I felt myself relax as it dawned on me.

“No.  I, uh…haven’t slept yet.  I couldn’t put it down.”

Okay,thathit me like a cannonball to the gut.  “What?  You were up all night reading?”

He chuckled then and it wasn’t until I realized I had stopped in shock that I caught myself looking into his eyes—hoping to find that he was just messing with me maybe?  “Yeah.  It’s really good.  I don’t know how you did it, because I don’t read a lot.  But I wanted to know what was going to happen.  Does she end up with the dickwad?  Or does she get smart and keep the man who really loves her and treats her right?  And does she graduate college or drop out, unable to take the pressure?  I want to know how it all ends.

“But then I heard noise downstairs, and I thought maybe you were going jogging.  I figured running a few miles would help me get so tired I’dhaveto sleep.”  We started walking again in sync as if we were somehow connected.  “Reading that much can’t be healthy, can it?”

I smiled.  “Well, a lot of people don’t binge read.  They have a certain time or times of day where they read.  Once in a while, though, you’ll get caught up in something and just have to finish.  Healthy or not, that’s when I consider myself most successful—when I’ve written a story that my readers just can’t put down until they know what’s happened.”

“This is definitely one of them.”  I took that as a supreme compliment, especially since this young man who didn’t consider himself a reader was gushing over my book.  “I used to run a lot.”

I felt a weight slide off my back with the welcome change of subject.  “It’s good for you.”

We neared the pond and I felt even calmer as I breathed in the air.  The sky was growing lighter too, more translucent as the minutes marched by.  I was able to hear the slow lapping of the water when Brandon asked, “Women like to read sex described that graphically?”

Holy shit.  Weweregoing to talk about it, and I wasn’t prepared for it.  But nothing with Brandon thus far had felt anything like normal.  The fact that I was craving him was my first indication.  But there was no sense prolonging my answer.  “Lots of women do.”

In the lightening sky, I could see him nod.  “I had no idea.”

“You like porn?”  I could hear the shock in his laugh.  “Most men do.  Men are typically visual creatures and are stimulated by pictures.  Women, on the other hand, are usually stimulated by their imaginations.  It’s all in our heads.”  For a moment, I forgot who I was talking to and just kept going, as if I was discussing the matter with a forum of women wanting to know my expert opinion.  And these were things I’d learned to talk about as an expert for quite some time.  “That’s why sometimes a woman has a hard time achieving orgasm if she’s got a lot on her mind.  We have to be able to let it all go to get there.  Sometimes reading does for us what porn will do for guys.  It gets us in the mood.”

He was quiet again. Shit.  I’d said too much.

Or not.  “Good to know.”

I couldn’t stop from smiling as I saw the house in the distance.

 

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