My Unexpected Vow: California Billionaires Book 2 by Harlow James (top 10 inspirational books txt) 📕

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I grate out, reaching for my alcohol. I welcome the burn coursing down my throat as I avoid Waverly’s gaze.

“I was trying to pay you a compliment. No need to be a dick.”

Sighing, I sit up higher on the bench and focus on her. “I know. I’m sorry. Tonight was just… it was a lot.”

She pushes off the wall and heads over to me, motioning for me to scoot over so she can take a seat beside me on the bench at the piano. “I know. I feel that way too.”

“I hate lying to them.” I shake my head and take another drink. “My parents don’t deserve that.”

“Well, we could always tell them the truth …”

“It’s too late now. We just need to let this ride out. Stay focused on the goal. Only four and a half months to go, right?” I joke, but the way Waverly’s brow scrunches has me questioning her reaction.

“Yeah.” She goes silent and then perks up a bit. “Say, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” I lift my drink to my lips once more, draining the glass.

“That story you told your dad… was any of that real?”

“What?” The speed of my heart rate picks up so fast, it almost knocks me backward. Her question caught me off-guard, and I can tell Waverly catches it because her eyes widen as if she’s shocked she asked it of me.

“Never mind.”

She shrugs and then moves to stand, but I reach out and stop her. “Why do you want to know?”

As she slowly takes her seat again, I feel frozen by her stare. “It just… I don’t know. Part of it felt so real. But that’s silly. I know it was just an act.”

“Part of it was the truth, Waverly,” I admit, as her eyes go wide again.

“What part?” she whispers breathlessly as her body inches closer to mine.

It would be so easy to lean in, press my lips to hers right now, and taste the forbidden fruit that’s been taunting me ever since she moved in. But does she want that? By the way her tongue darts out to lick her lips and her eyes bounce down to my mouth, I think she does.

“The part where I’ve been blind.”

“How so?” She moves just an inch closer.

“I didn’t realize how alone I’ve been until you were here,” I say, avoiding the other details I divulged—how she mesmerized me, how I saw her for the first time—because the more this plays out, the more those things have transformed into the truth.

“Yeah, you must have been lonely in this big house,” she mumbles mockingly, shifting her gaze down to the keys where she presses a few and giggles at the melody she creates, lightening the tension that was just straining between us. “Did you play all the time before I moved in?”

“Pretty often.”

“Why haven’t you played since I’ve been here?”

“Because it’s personal, something very few people know about me.”

She nods. “I see. I’m definitely surprised by it.”

“Well, now you know.”

She gazes back up at me. “Don’t be afraid to play on account of me. Seeing you sitting here, getting lost in the music…” She sighs and then shakes her head in deep thought. “It was… interesting.”

“Yeah?”

“Makes me see you a little differently.”

“I’m beginning to understand that feeling,” I reply as our eyes lock again and silence fills the space between us, even though it feels deafeningly loud.

“What’s happening, Hayes?” she asks as our eyes bounce back and forth between each other, the tension mounting as her arm brushes against mine.

“You tell me.”

She remains silent, holding our stare until I feel her shift forward, and then her lips land on mine—the touch so subtle and soft that I hold my breath as it happens.

But it’s happening. Waverly is kissing me with her silky lips that I’ve been wondering about, studying every curve and line of them each time that she speaks.

So I kiss her back, putting just enough pressure against her mouth that she knows I’m reciprocating. And as my mind catches up to my body’s reaction, I contemplate pushing this further.

I wanna wrap my arms around her, plunge my tongue into her mouth, swallow her moans as I pull her against my body, and drag my hands up and down every inch of her smooth skin. I want to consume her, rock her world like she’s done to me, and feel her need for me right back.

But she pulls away before I can, putting her hand up to her mouth as her eyes widen in shock. “I’m sorry,” she stutters, racing to stand from the bench. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Done what?”

“Kissed you! Oh, God,” she groans, covering her face with her hands. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“Why?”

“Because we don’t kiss, Hayes!” she shouts, waving her hand back and forth between us. “I just made this so much more complicated than it already is.”

“Well, I mean…” I start, but she cuts me off.

“No. Please don’t say anything. Let’s just pretend like this never happened, okay?”

But do I want that? No, my mind answers immediately.

However, watching her freak out right now just reminds me that this shift in feelings I’m having is probably one-sided, at least in intensity. And she’s right, crossing that line is only going to complicate things. There are already so many bumps to navigate here, the last thing we need to do is create another, even though my rock-hard dick is protesting that thought.

“Consider it forgotten,” I reply, even though my chest caves in as the words leave my lips. God damn it, is that ever going to stop?

“Seriously?”

I nod. “Sure. I understand your slip. Sometimes I’m just irresistible.” I wink at her as her icy glare I’ve come to expect returns.

Make her angry, Hayes. Remember? That’s what you need to rely on to get through this.

“God, you’re so full of yourself, Hayes.”

“You could be full of me if you’d just give in.”

“Ha!” She laughs. “I must have lost