Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
A victorious smile found her then. “Really?”
“Really. But I hope you realize what you’ve done, because now I want you to mark every last inch of my skin.”
She laughed at that, pulling out of my grip and walking back to her station to start cleaning up. “Tattoos are addicting.”
But as she cleaned my piece and covered it with a second skin, giving me all the aftercare instructions, I watched her with the truth vibrating through my chest.
It was her who was the addiction.
Mary
After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Leo and I dragged our asses back to The Pit. The exhaustion from the night before combined with the adrenaline crash from tattooing had me yawning every two seconds, and one look at Leo when we kicked our shoes off at the door told me he felt the same.
It was quiet in the house, and I checked the time on my phone. “A little early for everyone to be asleep already.”
“Tomorrow is our first real practice with the depth chart set,” Leo reminded me. “Coach will start kicking our asses at the crack of dawn.”
“Guess that means you should get some sleep, too.”
“Shouldn’t be an issue,” he said around a yawn.
“Do you want the bed tonight? I feel so awful that you’re still on the—”
Leo cut my words off with a roll of his eyes before he reached out, snagged my wrist in his hand, and tugged me into him.
“I’m fine, Stig,” he said with a smirk aimed down at me. “And I like having you in my bed.”
Chills erupted from where his breath whispered along my lips all the way down my spine.
His body pressed against mine, his hold on me so comfortable and confident, like he’d done it a million times, like I belonged nowhere if not in his arms.
I swallowed when he brushed my hair out of my eyes, tucking it behind one ear.
“Is it okay that I call you that?”
My heart skipped a beat before picking up double time. All I could do was nod, because all my awareness was zeroed in on where one of his hands held my waist, the other cradling my jaw.
Suddenly, I wasn’t tired anymore.
I watched as Leo’s throat bobbed with a thick swallow, like he just realized how close we were, too. He slowly slid his hand behind my neck, pulling me into him for a hug.
“Thank you for tonight,” he said softly.
I closed my eyes, inhaling his scent as my fingers curled in the fabric of his t-shirt. I couldn’t be sure how long we stood there like that, but I knew when he finally put space between us, I felt so dizzy I had to brace a hand on the wall to keep from falling.
“Well,” I said. “Goodnight, then.”
Leo shoved his hands in his pockets. “Goodnight.”
I climbed the stairs in a daze, somehow managing to brush my teeth and wash my face before stripping out of my clothes and throwing on the largest t-shirt I owned. I crawled into bed, ready for exhaustion to take me under, but as soon as my head hit the pillow and the distinct smell of Leo surrounded me, every cell in my body buzzed to life again.
A deep inhale of him had my eyes closing, and I curled up in the sheets only to huff and throw them off me in the next breath. My nipples peaked under the cool air, adding to my already-over-sensitized nervous system as I stared up at the ceiling.
“Go to bed,” I told myself, like saying it out loud would give me the restraint I needed.
But it didn’t.
Instead, my breathing intensified, eyes racing over the lines of the ceiling fan above me. He wasn’t even there anymore and I could feel his hands on me, feel the way he surrounded me when he pulled me into him, how he sighed into my hair like holding me was all he ever wanted.
I could see his eyes, the way they heated when they took in my dress last night, how they dragged over me so slowly my skin burned with every centimeter of that stare.
I could hear him, all around me — his laugh, the stiff breath he held when I was pressed against him, the deep baritone of his voice when he verified what I felt to be true at the shop — that he wanted me.
All of me.
He knew who I was now. He knew me past and present, the girl he hurt and the woman who grew strong despite him.
I pressed a hand to where my heart thumped loudly under my rib cage, waiting for good sense to find me and give me some reason why I couldn’t have Leo, why I shouldn’t let him have me.
But that voice had quieted.
I no longer heard the girl of my past screaming in pain, no longer felt her constant reminder of what he’d done to me. A softer version had moved in, one armed with the truth about that day, about everything that had happened since.