bathroom leaks on occasion. The closet space isn’t anything to write home about, and every so often the front door shifts and decides it doesn’t want to close properly.
But we’ve lived here for three years now. This is our home, the place where we adjusted to life as newlyweds, the place where we fell deeper in love, and maybe the place we’ll bring children home to one day. Either that or we’ll get a brother for Stanley. Whatever life brings, we’ll face it together.
“Are you going to keep working?” I ask.
He nods. “Just for a little while.”
I understand. Deadlines are deadlines.
I try to stand up, to let him get back to it, but he keeps me positioned on his lap.
I laugh and tell him to let me up.
“No, it’s fine. I can still write,” he says, wrapping his arms around my waist so he can reach his keyboard. He starts typing, and I laugh harder.
“Aiden.”
“Shhh. I’m working.”
Again, I try to wiggle free of his hold, and his arms clamp around me once again.
“You’ve been gone all day,” he says, sounding wounded. “Just stay for another second.”
I stop fighting him and sigh in resignation. He’s not going to let me up and I’m too tired to keep attempting it, so I settle against him, getting comfortable before I drop my head onto his shoulder. I inhale his scent and it calms me. He starts typing again, and for a few moments, I watch his fingers as they move over the keyboard, amazed at the words that seem to flow out of him so easily. Doesn’t he need to stop and think about what he’s going to say? How does his brain work that fast?
Then my eyes start to blur and I close them, just for a second, just to let them rest.
I listen to the steady thumping of Aiden’s heart. My cheek moves with the rise and fall of his chest, and the continuous rhythm of his breaths starts to make it harder for me to stay awake.
At some point, when I’m more asleep than awake, Aiden drops a kiss to my forehead and whispers that he loves me.
I’d tell him the same if I could, but I’m too tired. Too far gone.
It’ll just have to wait until the morning.
I hope you enjoyed DATE ME LIKE YOU MEAN IT. For more hilarity, continue reading a sample of my top 20 Amazon bestseller COLDHEARTED BOSS.
SYNOPSIS
I’m desperate and destitute when Lockwood Construction rolls into my small town with an offer too good to pass up: high wages to any able-bodied man willing to join their crew.
Say no more. I throw on baggy clothes, tuck my long hair under a baseball hat, and apply for a job. Unfortunately, my half-baked idea of disguising myself as a guy is flawed from the beginning. As Shakira says, these hips don’t lie.
Still, I like to think I might have pulled the whole thing off save for one thing:
I know my boss.
Last month, we met at a bar, and after a fiery first encounter, it seems we’re destined to be sworn enemies.
Ethan Stone is ruthless and arrogant, a man I never would have crossed had I known how much he likes to toy with his prey.
He should just fire me and be done with it. Instead, he decides to make me his personal slave. Oh right, I think they’re calling it personal “assistant” these days.
It’s torture, all of it—his bad attitude, his ruggedly chiseled face, his desire to grind me into dust.
Every one of our friction-filled battles burns hotter than the last.
A girl can only hold out for so long. Soon, I’m bound to go up in flames.
My objective? Survive the heat long enough to send home a paycheck.
My real objective? Stop having X-rated fantasies about my coldhearted boss.
Chapter 1
Taylor
I hang up my phone with an angry groan and let my forehead smack against the bar. The wood doesn’t bite as much as I want it to. I was hoping I’d blackout for a couple minutes or—even better—experience a nice bout of amnesia. Nothing too crazy, just maybe I’d forget who I am and where I live and why my life is a bleak desolate nightmare.
Angrier than ever, I clutch my cheap prepaid phone in my lap and tighten my grip, wondering how close I am to pulverizing it. Surely it’s not that hard. Just…a little…tighter. The phone stares back at me in one piece, gloating. I let out a defeated sigh just as a glass hits the