Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Eira comes towards me and places her hands on my upper arms. “All these thoughts are entirely normal,” she says. “It’s called the mental burden of being a parent. And it’s intensified because you’re a single parent. The only thing you can do is your best. And your best is pretty good from what I’ve seen.”
“You’re incredible,” I blurt. “Absolutely amazing. Calm and capable and you care so much.” I cup her cheek in my hand, all thoughts of boundaries shattering with every breath.
“I really do,” she says. “I really care about Guinevere. About…”
“Thank you,” I whisper, sweeping my thumb across her bottom lip. “Thank you so, so much.”
I shift forward a little and her hands move to my chest. I close my eyes at the feel of her hands on me. I’ve thought about her touching me like this for so long, in so many ways.
“Dax,” she whispers. Her voice is full of doubt. We both know this isn’t a good idea. But it feels so fucking inevitable. If either of us walks away now, we’ll just be delaying the unavoidable.
I silence her doubts by pressing my lips against hers. She gasps as our mouths meet. She tastes like honey and fresh flowers, and I want to drink her in and eat her up.
I take her face in both my hands and deepen this kiss. It’s better than I thought it would be, and I expected it to be phenomenal.
Her hands travel up my chest, heating my skin and making me want to strip naked. I want to make this woman in my hands feel everything I feel for her.
She’s beautiful inside and out. She deserves to be worshipped.
She moans into my mouth and the sound travels across my body and into my balls, making me vibrate with wanting her.
As if I’ve confessed how desperately and intensely I’m feeling, Eira steps back, panting, her lips reddened, her cheeks flushed. “I think we should…” She trails off.
My gaze travels from her eyes to her mouth, down her throat to her breasts, down, down between her legs. I close my eyes and try to imagine how sweet she’ll taste.
“We should stop,” she says. “We were going to talk and then—”
And then everything changed.
I step back, trying to ignore the pounding in my chest, the way my hands twitch with the need to touch her, the way I feel like I’m a magnet and she’s every ounce of iron in the world. “We can stop,” I say.
“It’s been an emotional evening,” she says.
I nod. She’s right. It has been emotional, but that’s not the reason I kissed her. It’s not the reason I don’t think I’ll be able to not want to kiss her until the end of time. That’s all about who she is and who she’s shown me she is.
“We can stop,” I repeat, “if that’s what you want.”
“What did you want to talk about?” she asks.
“I honestly don’t remember. All I can think about is how beautiful you are, how you feel, how you taste.”
She blushes. I don’t know exactly what it is about her reddened cheeks, but I feel myself lengthen in my jeans.
“I thought you were going to say how this wasn’t a good idea and how I’m—”
I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear and it silences her. “Hey, listen, if I’ve misread this,” I say, “if you’re not…feeling this, then—”
“It’s not that.”
Heat gathers in my chest. This is happening. I’ve not got this wrong.
“It’s just the consequences,” she says. “The stakes are so high for me.”
I get it. Or I don’t get it. I’m past the point of being able to sift through my emotions, to look at the logic of this situation. Is that what having a daughter does to a person? Does becoming a parent override sense? “Let’s press pause on the stakes. On both sides. For tonight at least.”
She looks at me as if she’s asking if that’s even possible. I don’t have an answer for her. All I know is that she’s looking at me like she needs me, and I know I need her.
I link my fingers into hers and she smooths her free hand over my chest. Inhaling, I try to commit this to memory. For some reason, this moment feels like it will stand out as an important juncture in my history.
“Eira,” I whisper. She closes her eyes in a slow blink.
I drop my forehead to hers and it’s as if our bodies are connecting and aligning, just as our breathing is.
I cup her face in my hands and kiss her.
I have an overwhelming sensation of regret that we haven’t done this sooner, that we’ve wasted time. I deepen our kiss.
Her fingers skirt my sides and I can barely keep quiet. If we stay like this the entire evening, just kissing and feeling and pressing, that will be more than I could have ever hoped for.