Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
As if my pushy, not-quite boyfriend could sense my unease, he glanced back at me and frowned when he noticed me still standing there. I chewed on my lip as I watched him shake hands with the pilot before swaggering over to me, the furrow in his brow increasing with each step until he stood in front of me.
“What’s the matter, Dream?” He grabbed my hips and pulled me close while kissing my forehead and cheek. I sighed and leaned into the protection of his body. His chest felt so warm and strong under my hands.
“Oh, nothing. Just…I think I’m afraid of heights. Please don’t be mad.”
His cut brows rose toward his freshly lined-up hairline. I tried not to focus on it, knowing that some bitch had her hands in his hair, and there was nothing I could do about it. For now. “You think?”
I gulped and shifted on my feet. “Well, I’ve never been in a position to test the theory before, but…yes.”
Rowdy was quiet as he searched my gaze, and for once, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “Do you want to go?”
My surprised gaze shot from his chest to his face and then to the blue and white striped balloon and the pensive middle-aged White man with a thick graying mustache readying it for flight.
I gulped again before nodding slowly.
It took me longer to meet Rowdy’s gaze this time since I’d already guessed how much trouble and money he’d probably spent on this date. “Are you mad?”
“Give me your mouth.”
My heart stuttered in my chest as I lifted onto the tips of my toes and did as he ordered. He kissed me long and deeply until all I wanted him to do was drag me inside those trees and fuck me against a tree.
When he ended the kiss, I chased him, but he stopped me with a hand on my nape. “I know you’ve been through some shit, so it might take you a while to believe me, but your back is my back, Atlas, and I’ll always have it.”
It took a moment longer for the lust fogging my head to lift, and when it did, my belly filled with butterflies. Suddenly, a hot-air balloon seemed unnecessary.
My feet were already floating off the ground.
“But—”
“Nah, no buts,” he cut me off sternly. “You don’t want to do it, so we won’t. Let’s go.”
I pushed away from him to eye him skeptically. “Just like that?”
Rowdy tucked his bottom lip between his teeth and nodded. “Just like that.”
“It looks expensive, Owen.” And nonrefundable.
He slapped my ass for arguing before pulling me close again. “So suck my dick while I find us something to eat, and we’ll call it even.”
I didn’t need to ask if his nasty ass was serious. I already knew he was, and it took all my effort not to fall to my knees and suck his big, black dick right here.
Rowdy kissed me again and then looked over his shoulder at the pilot. “Aye, bruh, we out. My girl said I got her fucked up,” his ignorant ass called out.
The pilot chuckled and waved us off while I hid my face out of second-hand embarrassment. Rowdy could be so damn ghetto.
“Come on.” He grabbed my hand, and we started the long trek back to the car.
We might have made it five steps before my head turned, and I stared at the large balloon blocking out the setting sun.
Why did he bring me here?
That question kept echoing in my head, and it wouldn’t stop. It grew louder with each step until I stopped in my tracks. “Wait.”
Rowdy obliged me and looked down at me quizzically. I inhaled and exhaled slowly, knowing that once I let the words free, I wouldn’t let myself take them back. “I want to do it.”
Rowdy’s expression turned skeptical, so rather than trying to convince him, I let his hand go and marched back toward the balloon.
“Changed your mind?” the pilot asked in a thick Southern accent when he noticed my approach.
I squared my shoulders and nodded. God, I want to fucking puke. I ignored my queasiness and grabbed the edge of the basket.
“Fuck is you doing?” Rowdy snatched me back without an answer before I could begin my graceless climb inside. His long body was like a furnace as he kept my back pinned to his chest.
I looked over my shoulder at him. “I told you. I can do this.”
“I know you can. I never doubted it for a second, so what are you trying to prove?”
“Nothing,” I answered honestly. “According to you, as long as I’m with you, I have nothing to fear, right? So let’s go, hero.”
“I’m not Superman,” he returned flatly. “I can’t fly us away if this shit crashes.”
I grinned and wiggled against his dick lodged against my spine. God, he wasn’t even fully hard. That damn dick of his should be classified as a lethal weapon. I truly hoped this ride wouldn’t last long because I couldn’t wait to get him alone so I could bounce all over it. “I bet that killed your soul just a little to admit, didn’t it?”