Dream Spinner (Dream Team Book 3), Kristen Ashley [reading eggs books txt] 📗

those tall, cool, slender blondes, not because there was anything wrong with them.

But because he was about curvy women of just above average height who had a mass of loose, brunette curls, big brown eyes, a frustrating instinct for self-preservation, could soar through the air five feet above the ground with the grace of a gazelle and were cute.

Also, one more thing.

A woman who was able to select adorable, even girlie dresses that she wore like she was in jeans and a tee and it made her a thousand percent fuckable.

“You can borrow whatever you want,” he told her.

His voice was not the usual.

It was lower, rougher, and it made her head jerk his way again.

“Are you okay?”

Outside of needing—very badly—to fuck her in that dress?

Yeah.

He was okay.

Though the need was so strong, and now she was standing by a bed, he was just barely okay.

“Fine, baby, but we got a reservation and it isn’t like we’re flying to my place in Aspen. We can come get anything you forgot whenever we need to do that,” he told her.

“Oh, right,” she replied, her gaze drifting to her bag. It came back to him and she asked, “You have a place in Aspen?”

He grinned at her. “Sorry, no.”

She grinned back, returned her attention to her packing, seemed to make a decision, finished shoving whatever in her bag and started to zip up.

Axl took that as his cue to move from where he was standing, at the top of the two steps, down into the space.

Her bedroom area had wood floors. White walls. White furniture.

Also, a white comforter.

Pale pink sheets on the bed. Dark pink throw pillows.

There were white vases with fluffy fake flowers in them in vibrant colors. She obviously read, because there were stacked books on the floor under her legged nightstands. And an eReader with a hot-pink cover sat on a night table.

The space was small. She’d utilized it well. And the way she decorated, as he’d found earlier that day, was feminine and kickass.

He reached beyond her to grab the strap of her big overnighter and hefted it on his shoulder.

Fuck, it felt like it weighed fifty pounds.

“Set up to stay awhile?” he teased.

“It’s shoes,” she replied, grinning and reaching for a canvas book bag that said FORTNUM’S USED BOOKS.

She scooted quickly to the nightstand, grabbed the eReader, pushed it in the bag, and put it on her shoulder.

Her bare shoulder, seeing as she was wearing a dress that was mushroom colored and it dropped down the sides of her shoulders, hugging her upper arms. It had long flowy sleeves and a wide, flirty ruffle at the short hem. It was belted with a thin belt in the same fabric.

She wore nothing else but earrings, those were big gold hoops.

And on her feet, she wore a pair of sandals that looked to be made with nothing but gold string crossing her foot and wrapping around her ankle. The heel was high and thin.

And yeah, he was fucking her in those shoes too.

She grabbed the last thing from the bed, a muted gold clutch, before she led the way up out of her bedroom space, and he waited at the door as she turned off lights and joined him.

Then he got her and her bags in his car and he did this hoping that she had to use the restroom while they were at dinner so he could watch her walk away in that dress.

She waited until he pulled out before she asked, “Where are we going?”

“Beatrice and Woodsley.”

He felt her eyes on him. “You got a reservation at BW in a day?”

“Lucked out,” he muttered, and he did. There’d been a cancellation right before he called in. “You been there?” he asked.

“Once, a few years ago, for Galentine’s Day with my mom.”

“Galentine’s?”

“The day before Valentine’s. It’s just for girls.”

“I know what it is, but I thought it was for friends.”

“My mom’s my friend.”

He was glad to hear that, considering her dad was such shit.

“She was a good mom too, Axl,” she went on.

“I’m glad, honey,” he murmured.

“I think there was a time, after I graduated from high school, where she got kind of messed up. Wondering why she picked him. Worried about what he’d done to me and what that would mean later. I still think she worries. But she sorted herself out. We got into being mom and daughter friends, not just mom and daughter, which is way cool.” Pause before she added, “She’s also started dating in the last couple of years. She’s gone on some vacations with friends. I think she’s finally getting over him and what he did to our family.”

Good news.

“You cool with her dating?” he asked.

“Definitely,” she stated, a chirp in her voice that not only underlined her word, it was fucking adorable. “I want her to be happy. I don’t think she’s been happy for a long time. I don’t think she’s happy now, not really. But I want her to find that.”

“Why don’t you think she’s happy now?”

“Well,” she began. “Your mom was driven and should never have stopped working. My mom wanted a husband, a home and family. It wasn’t like she wasn’t down to work to provide. To work to have her time and her space and her thing for herself. She likes her work. But my aunt told me she’d always been boy crazy. Said she went kinda nuts when she didn’t have a boyfriend.”

She stopped speaking, so Axl glanced at her to see she was gazing out the windshield, looking reflective.

Before he could say anything, though, she spoke again.

“And Aunt Pam said Mom used to talk, not about her dream of a big wedding, but her dream of a big house with husband and kids and stuff. Aunt Pam and Uncle Dave call Dad the Big Imposter. They said he was a charmer. They all fell for it. No one had his ticket. Until after the deed was done, her signature was on the marriage certificate