The Secret Hook-Up (The Copper Valley Thrusters, #6)

by Pippa Grant

Fuck me upside down and sideways and over a barrel and inside a fish tank. No. No no no no no.

Botticelli couldn’t do her curves justice. Her luscious ass and full breasts. Collarbones that could cut glass and biceps that say try me. The long legs with the thick muscles

my balls demand to know why it was wrong that we had the audacity to like her so much.

Being in a relationship isn’t about codependency, Duncan. It’s about the enhancement to both of your lives that you can’t get on your own.

There I was, falling head over heels for a kind, sexy, playful woman who spent her workdays wearing an I’m a hardass mask to take on the world and win it over one day

She ate and left no crumbs just by waking up this morning.

said with utter reverence

squints one eye at me. “You’re pissed.” “I’m Canadian. We’re never pissed.” “That’s why this is weird.”

cookie date at his place,

I don’t need liquid courage. I need liquid tolerance. Patience. Something to help me resist the lull of being provoked.

And I have a metric ass-ton to unpack when I make my next appointment with my therapist.

He lets that full smile fly, and god help me, he’s using the dimples too. I hate his dimples. They’re fucking glorious.

The man is grinding coffee beans in another room while I have the hangover from hell.

I can want to share parts of my life here and there with the people who come and go. But I never want to need it. Needing it is what gets you in trouble. Needing it can destroy your life.

Croaking Creatures is a little niche. It started as a mockery of a popular sim game where you pick what animal you want to be, then go live on an island

It seems there’s a new way to hurt yourself and die—and respawn, naturally—every week or so.

the flying kitten of death

My dick is holding the majority of the blood in my body right now, which means my brain is operating at about ten percent of its normal capacity.

I choose to forgive myself for it too, because I can’t be good for anyone if I’m busy beating myself up for my mistakes instead of learning from them.

It was badass Addie with a hint of what the fuck just happened and a dash of alcohol.

“This is called setting standards if you ever change your mind about being single forever. Don’t settle for anyone who doesn’t think you’re gorgeous all the time. Don’t even do casual with someone who doesn’t think you’re gorgeous all the time. You’re welcome.”

I wink. “Have we met? I’m a fucking god.”

How do you guard your own happiness when you feel like your happiness is denying someone else theirs?

My pulse is still trying to prove it can outrace a cheetah.

When he’s not pissed that I need to be independent, he says all of the right things. You don’t have to pick me. I’d pick you, but I understand you’re under no obligation to pick me back. You don’t need me. I get it.

Everyone leaves baseball sometime. How soon depends on when you find the next thing that will make your life more fulfilling.

My coffee-adoring and early morning-loving ass flipped her off a few times

I have a fuckton of admiration for her independence and strength until she lets it work against her.

“Zeus Berger once told me he would never prank a locker room of women because he’s good, but they’re better,” I tell her. “He’s not wrong.”

“She’s not used to believing she’s pretty,” Duncan adds. “It’s like her mirrors don’t work.”

was easier being a single mom than it was depending on him for anything. Or taking care of two kids instead of one, since he was a big baby himself.

earned the privilege of being in her life by being a partner and not a leech.

you never know where better will come from when you quit standing in your own way.”

“I don’t want to just like my life. I want to love my life. So I’m going to open myself up to whatever the world wants to throw at me and look at every moment as an opportunity.

“A hundred and ten thousand, Kam,” Nick says. “Just over ten percent of a full million.”

She laughs while he plays with her hair, smiling that completely smitten smile that’s always on his face when they’re together.

“When your sister-in-law can afford a helicopter to glitter-bomb your brother’s entire house to prove who’s top dog, you have to take drastic measures.

I want to fuck you into blissful oblivion until you see stars.

“I’ve never wanted a relationship, but he makes me want to give it a real chance. Not because something’s missing. But because he makes everything better.”

you don’t need me to take care of you. You just need me to stand next to you. It’s nice. I like it. I like you.”

Her confession is a sucker punch to the heart and a call to ride at dawn.

“You excite me. You challenge me. You comfort me. You get me. And you make me want to do bigger and better things, while helping me see that sometimes the bigger and the better things are the little things.”

I’m facing my fears instead of treating them like strengths of their own. That sometimes, the act of choosing bravery is the biggest hurdle.

The night lies, my therapist used to tell me. It tells you the scary things that you want to believe.

You are the basis of where the next part of my life begins. You’re the sun that everything else revolves around. You are where I want to be, what I want to do, and how I want to live.”