Page 25 of Merrily Mine
Adjusting my position on the couch and leaning back, I frowned at her. “Why wouldn’t I?”
She shook her head. “Most guys, well… They think romance books are a waste of time. That it’s silly, and gives women, and I quote,unreasonable expectations.” She added air quotes around the phrase.
I blinked, practically seeing red. “Theywhat?”
Emily just shrugged. God, I needed to make her understand that whoever had dismissed her in the past—her hobbies, her career, everything—was flat outwrong.
“Come here,” I murmured, opening my arms wide.
She bit her lip, standing up and sliding in between my open thighs.
“Hi,” she whispered as I wrapped an arm around her torso.
“Hi.” I kissed her neck. “The things you love aren’t a waste of time, baby.” I curled a finger around one of her loose strands of brown hair. “The fact that anyone ever told you it was makes me want to?—”
“It’s okay,” she tried to reassure me, cutting me off. “I’m used to it.”
“Youshouldn’tbe,” I growled. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
Her eyes met mine, and I saw it all there—the doubt. The fear. God, she was too perfect to have any of this plaguing her. “Thank you,” she murmured.
Suddenly, it became my new mission in life to make sure she never heard those words again. That no one ever belittled her ever again.
As long as I lived, I vowed that to myself. Emily Sullivan deserved a life full of happiness andlight.She deserved to follow her heart wherever it took her.
Even if it took her away from me.
9
emily
Iswept my eyes over the spines of the books in our library. My mom might have been all business as a surgeon, but she’d loved reading her whole life. Not just for work, for learning, but for pleasure, and she’d instilled the same love in all her kids. Sure, Benjamin had his nose buried in comic books just as fervently as Hunter read his fantasy novels, but they didn’t care what we read, as long as we were reading.
Seeing Mason curled up on the couch with one of my dad’s old thriller novels made my heart race. It was so easy having him here. Like this was exactly where he was supposed to be. Like he justfit.
Maybe because he’d grown up here, too. Because he’d spent so much time in this house, on our property, it was just natural. But maybe it was somethingmore.
He looked up at me, and my heart leapt in my chest. The flutters were hard to ignore. How could I possibly not care about this man? In every action, he showed me how good he was.
“I think you’re amazing,” Mason told me, holding me tight against his body. There was something about being held likethis that felt comforting in a way I couldn’t explain. I was trying really hard not to cry.
No one had ever seemed so angry for me before. Not at me, but for me.
Even though they stung, I was used to it. People only had to make fun of you or make snide comments so often before you believed them.
And yet, Mason’s words eased an ache in my heart that I hadn’t even realized was there. A sore spot he was already soothing over. I couldn’t even see his face unless I strained my neck, given that I was between his legs, but somehow I knew exactly the expression I’d find if I turned around right now.
One I wasn’t ready for.
Especially after he’d referred to me as hisfriendearlier. This morning, when he’d asked me what we were doing, I’d freaked out. So I’d told him we were just having fun. Fun, I could do.
There was no way he was ready for the barrage of thoughts inside my mind, anyway. How this felt a little likefate.That I’d never woken up next to a man before. I’d never imagined sleeping in someone’s arms could feel so right, but they had.
“I think…” I said, turning around in his lap, straddling him. “I think I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“No?” He raised an eyebrow, sliding his arms around my back and cupping my ass. “Then what do you want to do, darlin’? Start a new book?”
I shook my head, dropping my forehead to his. “No.”
