Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
I held her tighter, shifting an arm beneath her knees as I stood from the bed, cradling her against my chest.
“You never bother me,” I assured her, walking her across the hall and into my room, kicking the door shut behind me. “From now on,” I said, gently laying her in my bed. “You sleep with me. And whenever the nightmares come, I’ll wake you up. I’ll assure you that you’re safe.”
She sighed, eyes tracking mine as I walked around the bed, shedding my shirt and pants until I was just in my boxer-briefs. I moved the blankets back, and the two of us climbed under them, settling on our respective pillows.
She turned on her side to face me, and I did the same, smoothing some of her blonde hair off her cheek.
“Talk to me, please,” she said. “Anything. I just…I can’t go to sleep without a distraction. That nightmare was a bad one. You got shot…”
Fuck, the pain that shaped the lines of her face gutted me.
“No one is going to shoot me,” I promised. “Or you. No one is going to take you away from me. I don’t give a fuck if your father sends his entire army after us. They wouldn’t be able to take you from me.”
She blew out a breath, a sort of peace settling over her face. “I believe you,” she said. “But, could you still distract me?”
I swallowed hard, heat slicing through my veins. A primal need to protect her, even from her dreams, twisted me. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized I had Serenity in my bed with barely anything separating us.
“There’s only one way I know how to distract you, angel,” I said, my voice sounding like it was scraped raw. “And right now we don’t have the safety of a phone screen between us.”
“Please,” she begged, her eyes on mine. “Show me.”
“Serenity—”
“I want to know what that’s like,” she cut over me. “To be distracted by you. Even if it’s only just this once.”
Just this once.
I could do just this once, couldn’t I?
I wouldn’t take her virginity, but I could give her what she needed without breaking my word.
I reached across the distance between us, dragging her to me with one arm. She gasped as I brought our bodies flush, her fingers splaying along my bare chest. Her eyes dropped to the ink I had there, and she slowly started tracing the lines of the designs.
And I was hard.
Jesus, it didn’t take much with her, and with the flimsy fabric between us, it would be so easy to sink deep inside her—
Nope. This was about her, not my cock.
“Beautiful,” she whispered, eyes still on my ink.
“I’ve never been called that before,” I said.
“No one was really looking then,” she said. “Did it hurt?”
I shook my head. “Some people say it hurts.”
“You like it, though,” she said. “Don’t you?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes,” I said. “It’s more like a burn.”
“I want to know what it feels like someday.”
“You want a tattoo?” Surprise made me smile.
“I was never allowed to think about it before, but I’ve always loved yours. Especially this one,” she said, trailing her fingers over a piece on the inside of my arm. It was a line design with two triangles sitting atop each other and flipped, creating two points in either direction. “Why did you choose these?” she asked, pointing inside the triangles where other symbols were inked.
“They each mean something to me,” I said. “A feather, because my mother loves birds,” I explained as Serenity touched each element. “A moon, because I’m always my best self at night. And a compass in case I ever forget where I came from.”
“I love it,” she whispered, then dipped her head down, grazing her lips over the design before shifting her head back toward me.
Slowly, I inched my lips down to hers, groaning when we touched.
Fuck me, I’d wanted to kiss her every day since that first time.
She tasted just like I remembered, all sweet and warm. She arched against me as I slipped my tongue between her lips, and I slid my free hand down her side and over her hip before hooking her leg around my waist.
“Gareth,” she said between our kiss. Her hands roamed over my chest and around to my back, her fingers greedy like she couldn’t get enough of me.
We were on the same page then, because I couldn’t stop touching her, relishing every inch of her smooth skin as I explored her delicate curves.
She kissed me back, harder, more demanding, and it made my cock ache. She reached down between us, her fingers just barely grazing my cock over my boxer-briefs. I thrust into her touch, then gently grabbed her wrist and pushed it up and over her head, the move putting her on her back with me above her.