I swung my legs off the lounger as I tried to reach for my book again, leaning over, no doubt with my boobs on display as he held me back with one arm. “Everyone knows it’s a privilege to crease the spine of a book, and you haven’t earnt that right as someone who just said you thought it sounded rubbish.”
Henry’s laughter filled the air. “I have to earn the right to open a book properly?”
“That’s right, you do. If you’re going to step into a fictional world, you do not disrespect it willy nilly.”
“Willy nilly.” He laughed harder. “You’re really fucking cute sometimes, you know that?”
“I’ll give you cute, Henry Cohen. Give itback.”
With just one hand holding the book, he managed to put his thumb into a page where I’d highlighted several lines of text that had resonated with me, and that’s when my embarrassment really started to kick in.
“What’s this?” He cast a quick glance my way before he focused back on the book. “Only a person who has had to endure fake love before knows what it’s like to finally be set free from the shackles of their never-ending performance.“Woah. That’s deep, Phoebe.”
With a huff of resignation, I gave up and sat back with a slump. “It isn’t always the meaning of the quote, okay? Sometimes I just appreciate the way a writer manages to weave simple words into a physical emotion that makes you stop and take stock of… I don’t know… life.”
“Interesting.” He brought the book down in front of him again, flicking through the pages with ease until he stopped on another. “What’s this little heart next to the name…”—he leaned in closer—“Reed Easton?”
I rolled my eyes and folded my arms, feeling the redness creeping up my neck. “I’m not having to fake the hate towards you so much this morning, Cohen.”
His eyes shot up to mine at the use of his last name. “I’ll let that one slide, but only because you look so cute when you’re red-faced and pouty.”
“Stop calling me cute.”
“No can do. Just stating facts.”
“Grr.” I tried to snatch it off him again, but he just chuckled and evaded my move before he raised a brow, waiting for me to answer his previous question about my little page drawings.
“Fine. I leave love hearts next to moments where the book boyfriend—in this one, that’s Reed Easton, in case you’re too dense to follow—does something that makes me, I don’t know…” I waved a hand around in front of me. “Swoon.”
“You mean like what I did to you last night?”
I tilted my head. “Your smugness is showing.”
“I’m right, though, aren’t I?”
“To think I was looking forward to seeing you today.”
Henry chuckled andfinallyhanded the book back over to me. Like the pouty child he’d already accused me of being, I snatched it back from him and tucked it away in my beach bag, knowing that with Henry by my side, I wouldn’t be getting any serious reading done for a while now anyway.
Reed Easton, who?
“You’re stopping me from reading. Do you know what a crime that is?”
“You saying you’d rather spend time with him than me?”
“He doesn’t pick on me as much as you do.” I tried to glare at him but couldn’t stop my lips from twitching, giving me away. He had me in a chokehold, and he knew it.
“For what it’s worth, I think it’s adorable how you leave little love notes to yourself like that in your books,” he said, pushing himself to the edge of his lounger so our knees brushed together. It was such a small piece of contact, nobody around us would notice or think anything of it, but he may as well have pushed my bikini bottoms aside and started groping me in public. That’s how capable a single touch from him was of bringing me to my knees.
“I’d hardly call them love notes to myself.”
“Sure, they are. You’re telling yourself what you want in life. Those highlights and love hearts aren’t just an appreciation for the written word. They’re things you’ve either felt in the past or want to feel in the future.”
How the hell did he get inside my head so easily?
I thought of all the things I’d like to feelfromhim andwithhim soon, but before I could say anything, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and brought it in front of him.
“By the way, I’ve been thinking.”
