Page 14 of Recklessly You
I scrunch my nose. “Eww.”
She shakes her head, chuckling. “Hey, so how was your lunch date?” Mila asks as she moves a bale of hay out for her shoot.
I throw my head back in laughter.
“Mothballs?”
She scrunches her nose. “You mean he smelled like mothballs?”
“His coat. I think he might have gotten it from his grandad’s closet.”
“Wow, you’d think he would’ve smelled himself—unless that’s just him.”
I’m leaving the whole incident with Liam out. I don’t want her to think anything about it. She will try to set us up, and he’s a man who doesn’t make commitments. And I feel the same.
“Who knows? All Milo did was talk about himself.”
Her emerald-green eyes bore into mine, scrutinizing me. She sighs. “I love you, Sophie. You’re my best friend. I have to ask. If you didn’t want more with Ryder, and now you’re online dating—this is not you. I’m not judging you. I’m just worried. Is this because of Eric? Are you looking for a serious—?”
I run my hands through my hair. “No, I’m not looking for anything serious. I don’t want to give a man my time only to have him break me. I don’t want to get hurt again. I’m just casually dating. I gave Eric my virginity, which meant a lot to me. I’ve only been intimate with two men in my life. Maybe these guys are just distractions until I can get over the betrayal. Deep down, I knew Eric and I wouldn’t be together forever. We were drifting apart, but what he did and how he did it has left a mark.”
She pulls me into a tight hug.
Soon after, our clients and Dahlia show up. With shot after shot of babies and family holidays, the rest of the day goes by relatively quickly. I lean my head back and collect my breath, slouching in my office chair. Grabbing my phone, I scroll through social media. My fingertips itch, urging me to search for Liam. I type in his name, and my eyes widen into a lustful haze.
Holy guacamole.Absent-mindedly, my finger traces the width of his sculpted shoulders to his biceps. His muscles are so cut and taut that his shirt sleeves are straining to contain them. Scrolling down, I see he’s wearing a pair of sweats, a plain white T-shirt, a backward baseball cap, and a pair of aviator sunglasses, his white boxer dog at his side. My breath hitches. Liam is a fine specimen of a man. I close my eyes, envisioning how my hands would feel roaming his body. Does he have tattoos, maybe scars? What is underneath all the clothes? God, it’s getting warm in here. My thoughts go haywire when Mila walks in on me.
“Hey, do you have…”
Startled, I throw my phone up in the air. My heart feels like it stops, and I react instinctively, my arm shooting up to catch the phone before it can land on the floor. I teeter for a moment, off balance, before tumbling out of my chair and landing on the cold tile floor with a thud. As I scramble to my feet, embarrassed heat rising in my cheeks, I’m painfully aware of Mila in the doorway, eyes wide with surprise. I grab my phone before she catches me fantasizing about Liam.
“Ugh, what are you doing? What did I walk in on?”
I feel like a kid who got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. “Nothing.” I fix my skirt, avoiding Mila’s curious gaze.
“Ugh. Uh, youwerelooking at something. Your face is crimson. And your eyes were closed like you were daydreaming.”
I scoff. “I was not!”
Her eyes widen with a massive joker grin. “Were you watching porn?”
I throw my hands up in the air. “God, no, Mila, sheesh.”
She snickers and walks into my space. Brows raised. “You’re lying, and you’re buggin’.”
God, it feels like porn. Liam is the definition of porn. I can’t get his Greek god form out of my head. He’s brolic. I flip her the bird and rest my hands on my hips.
“I’m not buggin’.” Yup, I am freaking out.
“You can lie to yourself all you want. So, what was it? A threesome? Was it reverse harem like the book I let you borrow?” She sits on the corner of my desk. “I mean, you were flustered. Must have been some hot stuff you were watching.” She raises her brows up and down.
I can’t deny it was hot stuff. So hot that I feel the moisture in between my legs.
“Yes, it was hot stuff.” I surrender to her stubbornness.
“I knew it.”
“I guess all those romance novels are getting to you.” She sighs as if in a cloud of lust.
