Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
He’d draped his suitcoat over one dining room chair and he’d loosened his tie. He felt her before he saw her and when he turned to look toward the living room, his breath caught. Nearly fumbling the screwdriver, he sucked in a sharp breath. A frosted sage green dress with lace covered her curves.
“Fuck me, Freckles. You’re gorgeous.”
She didn’t respond, didn’t flush, nothing. Emma stood there, eyes on him. Once the screwdriver had been placed on the countertop, he walked toward her, noticing her gaze never wavered from him. But still no words had passed her lips.
He raised his hands to cup her face before at the last moment settling them on the sides of her neck, allowing only his thumbs to touch her face.
She blinked a few times and it finally came, that adorable flush that owned her skin when she was thinking about him. Linc brushed his lips along hers and while it was hell pulling away, he did.
“You look good in that suit, Mr. Conner.”
“Linc.”
Her flush deepened.
“What are you doing?”
“Touching my fiancée.” Something he didn’t plan on stopping for a long while, if ever.
One side of her mouth twitched. “I meant in the kitchen.”
“Tightening the hinges on the cupboard doors.” Shame flooded her gaze and she tried to turn her head away. Linc refused. “No, Emma. This is something I can do and I’m a lot taller than you, so I don’t have to be on a stool or ladder to do it.”
“We should go.”
He growled. She wasn’t meeting his gaze. “We can miss the entire thing.”
That did it. She snapped those blue eyes to him and there was the spark that had vanished for a few moments.
“After all the work you did on this? Putting it together, kowtowing to that old man and his wife just to secure the money. You’re not missing this.” She smacked a hand on his chest. “Why would you even joke about something like that?”
“Maybe I just needed my woman to knock some sense into me.”
She coolly lifted her eyebrows. “Give me a bat.”
He clucked his tongue. “And you say you’re just a shy, quiet woman, Emma Henricksen. But you’re threatening me.”
She reached up and adjusted his tie, tightening it once more before smoothing her hands over his torso. His skin pebbled and his pants grew tight as her hands caressed him.
“We need to go.”
Heaving an exaggerated sigh, he released her and stepped into the kitchen to swipe his suitcoat off the chair. She watched him the entire time he slipped it on. And still when he returned to stand before her.
“Yours to command, Freckles.”
“If only,” she muttered as she turned around and walked to where a lacy shawl thing, which matched not only her dress but her fingers and toenails, waited.
Fuck, tonight was going to be hard. And so was he.
All.
Damn.
Night.
The dress stopped just below her knees and she had some strappy sandals with heels on her feet, giving her a few more inches but not a lot. All he knew was he approved of everything. Her hair tumbled around her shoulders in curls, which added softness to her features. Linc dug his nails into his palms so he didn’t grasp her hair and enjoy it falling over his skin.
He stared at her ass until she reached the front door and glanced over her shoulder at him. “Linc? You okay?”
With a jerky nod, he walked to her.
She gave him a smile that warmed him completely. Fiddling with the lapels on his suitcoat, she smiled up at him. “You know you’re going to do fine. No one knows this proposal better than you. No one cares more than you about this center.”
“You think so?”
“I think,” she said, settling a hand along his cheek, “if Mr. Stevenson doesn’t see what you are doing and can’t understand your proposal, he’s not as smart as everyone believes.”
“You’re not impressed with his choice in women.”
She sniffed. “I’m not impressed with his wife flirting and trying to get my fiancé in some kind of compromising position. But he’s the one who has to live with what he brought into his life.”
“What I’m hearing is, you’re prepared to fight to the death for me against that woman.” He nipped her lower lip ever so briefly. “God, now I’m imagining naked Jell-O wrestling. Or mud wrestling.”
“I’m sure she would have no problem getting naked and doing that for you.”
Linc tsked and wrapped an arm around her midsection, drawing her flush to him. “I don’t want to see her that way. You, Freckles, all fucking day and twice on Sunday. What do you say? You and me? Mud wrestling? Jell-O? Sheets?”
She snorted and shook her head. “You’re incorrigible.”
He nodded. “Yes, yes, I am adorable.”
“Not at all what I said.”
He shrugged without shame. “Meh, it’s what I heard.”
“Thinking with the wrong head, Mr. Conner.” She turned around in his arm and opened the door.