Total pages in book: 225
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 218500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1093(@200wpm)___ 874(@250wpm)___ 728(@300wpm)
He’s so close I feel his body heat. His eyes are so angry, so cold.
“You’re really scaring me.”
“I want to throw you on the nearest surface and fuck your brains out. Fuck you to death. Fuck you until I’m dead. I want to fuck you until there’s nothing left of either of us.”
I somehow manage to swallow.
He’s breathing even harder, practically breathing fire.
“If I touch you, I’ll explode into full-blown madness.”
My heart hammers hard in my chest.
His voice gentles just slightly. “If I don’t touch you…”
“What will happen?” I ask in a whisper.
“The same.”
I work down a swallow and ask, “So, what will you do?”
He flinches. “I’ve been trying not to touch you. Was trying to stay away, not sure what would happen when I saw you. Then you went looking for me and I saw how upset you were on the security footage in the hallway when you thought I was with another woman.”
I nod slightly.
“So I tracked you. To the soup place.”
I nod again.
“Smelled your perfume. Saw your face. Looked at you…”
I wait.
He moistens his lips. “And I knew the time apart, the counseling, the meditation, the medication… they didn’t help.”
My heart is about to take flight, leave my body; it’s pounding that fast.
“At all. Because I want to fucking devour you. I want you, maybe even more than before.”
He’s so close. His face is just inches from mine. His hands are pressed to the wall just inches from my body.
Despite the chill in his gaze, I feel the radiation of his body heat, and it’s like it’s caressing my skin.
I bite my lip and tentatively reach for his face. He backs up as if I’ve got a communicable disease.
His nostrils flare.
I take a step forward.
“Chloe…” he warns.
“Derek,” I whisper and reach for his jaw. He steps back out of my reach.
“I’m scared, bunny,” he whispers.
“Why are you scared?”
“They didn’t fix me, baby.”
“I was scared, too. But what you just said… it helped.”
“I don’t wanna hurt you anymore, Chloe.”
“Then don’t hurt me anymore, Derek.”
His gaze softens just a little as his eyes travel my face.
I step closer and reach for his jaw again. This time he doesn’t stop me.
He closes his eyes tight, like my hand on his skin burns.
I put my free hand on his back. I move it up and down.
He’s shaking now. Hard.
His eyes open and pain slashes across his features as he grabs my face with both hands. He’s holding me a little rough, his grip is a little too hard. His chest moves up and down with heavy breathing as I sidestep and begin to back up into the open bedroom doorway.
He follows, looking conflicted, still holding my face.
His eyes land on something. I look over my shoulder. The envelope lying on the nightstand.
“Do you want to see what’s inside?” I ask.
“Maybe,” he says carefully.
He still has my face in his hands. I try to move away, but his grip tightens.
“Open it,” I urge, gently.
Uncertainty is in his eyes as he lets go of me and lifts the envelope.
He pulls out the cardboard sheets and the lined sheet of paper, frowning.
“The book report I owe you.”
He jerks in surprise, eyes scanning the lined sheet of paper. He sets it down and looks at the three cardboard color charts in his hand.
“That’s for ideas for the closet and the bathroom. I didn’t want to just pick a paint color without you, but I can’t take that green that much longer. And the other–”
I’m rendered speechless, because my nightgown is ripped from my body, and I’m thrown on the bed. The book report flies off the nightstand and the paint charts are on the floor.
My husband is on me.
His shirt is flying over his head. The clothing south of his waist is all falling and now he’s covering me, mouth on mine, slamming his hips forward, filling me. Our needy sounds fill the space around us. They fill our room, in our house, where we’re going to grow old together. Where we’ll raise a family.
I clamp around him and weave my fingers into his hair, about to say something, but his tongue is in my mouth, then he nips my bottom lip, and it smarts. I jolt with the pain, and he pulls out, flips me to my stomach, and drives back inside me.
“Mine. My wife. My Chloe. Mine. Fuck.” His teeth clamp down on my shoulder.
I whimper, fisting the bedding as his hand slips beneath me and cups me between the legs. His fingers work magic while he slams into me over and over again, grunting like a wild animal. My wild animal.
I’m flipped again and he’s glaring into my eyes now.
“Never. Never want to be away from you again. Never.”
I shake my head. “Never.”
He grabs my face.
I notice the necklace he’s wearing.
My wedding and engagement ring are dangling there.