Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3), Tara Wyatt [best mobile ebook reader .txt] 📗

sunglasses on her face as Max turned his SUV from Old Montauk Road onto a much narrower one curving away from the main highway. The ocean glimmered peacefully behind them, late morning sun reflecting off the water and dappling the trees shading the road. Airy white clouds were painted across the cerulean sky, barely moving. The thermometer on Max’s dashboard read eighty-one degrees, and Willa smiled, feeling like summer was finally here.

“Almost there,” said Max, glancing at her with a grin on his face. Her heart kicked up a notch as she waited to see if Theo had been exaggerating or not.

She hadn’t told him about what had happened earlier that week, beyond mentioning that the reporter had tried to pry into their relationship and she’d done her best to shut it down. She hadn’t mentioned what she’d overheard in the employee lounge, or how it had made her feel. She didn’t want to make it seem like she couldn’t handle dating him, or worse, that she was asking him to swoop in and solve her problems. Max was protective, and she knew that if he got wind of what people were saying about her, he wouldn’t take it well. It would look like she’d gone running to him and would ultimately only make things worse for her.

So she’d decided to just accept that some people were upset that she was dating Max and that was that. Besides, what other people thought was so much more about them than about her. And any insecurities the comments had dredged up about her body had been put to rest that night when Max had pinned her against the wall in the entryway to his penthouse and practically ravaged her right there, telling her he’d been half hard with wanting her all day, thinking about getting inside her.

Two orgasms later, and she’d pretty much forgotten all about the mean comments. God bless oxytocin.

She glanced over at Max, who drove with his right hand on the wheel, his left elbow resting casually against the window ledge. Everything about his posture was relaxed. Laid back. It was a far cry from the intense way he often carried himself, and she loved getting to see this side of him. The happy, content, at ease side. In the past, he’d always seemed as though he were constantly fighting against himself, striving and working and keeping everything so tightly controlled. But gradually over the past few weeks, she’d watched him relax into someone happier and brighter than she’d ever imagined he could be.

He wore a light blue T-shirt and faded jeans, and his hair…he’d let it go totally curly this morning and she loved it. The entire drive, she kept reaching over and running her fingers through the soft locks, watching the curls bounce back into place. She did it again just then, and he made a low humming sound, almost like a cat purring. She realized then what she loved about his curls wasn’t just how sexy they were, but how they symbolized—to her, at least—his happiness. The way he’d relaxed into something and was letting himself enjoy it. As far as she was concerned, she never wanted to see him with straight hair again.

They drove past a row of gorgeous houses and the trees lining the road became thicker, shading them from the sun overhead. They passed the driveway for a famous Hamptons resort and then Max took a right down an even narrower road, lined with trees and bushes and tall grasses. The right turn took them back towards the water and she lowered her window a few inches, letting the salt air in and inhaling deeply. They passed by a few more properties, but they were nestled too far back from the road for her to be able to see more than driveways and hints of buildings in the distance.

Max turned onto a gravel road, the SUV bumping slightly, and she put her window back up so as not to let the dust kicked up by the vehicle’s tires inside. Trees towered on either side of the road, encasing them in emerald shadow. The SUV slowed as Max navigated the gravel road, and after about 100 yards, the most beautiful house she’d ever laid eyes on rose up before them.

It was a traditional style house—mansion, really—with a wide front porch that wrapped around the side, the exterior covered in sandy colored bricks. Cedar shingles covered the peaked dormers arching up over the porch from the second story. It sprawled across the property in an L-shape, encasing the driveway and gardens full of flowering bushes below the porch.

“This is your little place?” she teased, undoing her seatbelt as soon as the SUV had come to a stop and hopping out, the pea stone driveway crunching beneath her feet. The sun on her skin felt like heaven, the air carrying the scent of freshly cut grass and the ocean.

Max stepped out of the SUV and grabbed their bags from the back seat. He shouldered one while carrying the other, leaving his hand free to twine his fingers through hers. “Okay, maybe it’s not little. I didn’t want to over hype it.” He shrugged as he led her up to the front porch.

“I don’t know how you could possibly over hype this place,” she said, letting go of his hand so he could unlock the door. “Do you come here much?”

He shook his head. “No. I bought it mostly as an investment and I use a property management company to rent it out and maintain it. But…” He pushed open the front door and let her walk in ahead of him. “I wanted to bring you here.”

Willa gasped as she stepped inside and pushed her sunglasses up onto her head. The house was absolutely stunning, with dark, hardwood floors, white walls that reflected the light shining in from the floor to ceiling windows, and a high ceiling criss-crossed with thick, white beams. The floor plan was open,