Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
He kissed her over and over, his brain going fuzzy. Nothing mattered except Lou and the way she smelled and tasted and felt. His hands slipped into the thick, soft waves of hair that brushed her shoulders. She usually wore it up, but it was down now, and he played in it, tightening and releasing to lead her where he wanted her to go.
She followed every cue, moving with him in an effortless dance.
In the back of his head, he knew this was one of the dumbest things he’d ever done. They were trapped and needed to find a way out. They should be getting ready to fight their captors.
But he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t not give them this one moment—not when he’d been the reason they wouldn’t have a lifetime together.
He held her tight against his body. He didn’t care that his muscles ached and still burned from where the darts had bitten into his flesh as they’d tased him over and over. The pain was nothing more than a reminder that he was alive in these moments, that he had to make the most of every single one.
“Do you know how long I’ve wanted you?”
“Don’t. I don’t want to talk about it. If you insist on trying to convince me the last ten years were about you protecting me, then this ends now,” she said, fire in her eyes. She stepped back.
And he didn’t like that. He reached out and gripped her wrist. He’d always thought Lou could be a heinous, glorious brat if she ever gave the lifestyle a real try.
“Don’t want to talk about how much I want you? Don’t want to talk about how much fucking time I’ve wasted for both of us? You need to understand that if we get out of this, everything changes.”
“Nothing will change,” she vowed, her gaze going steely. “You’re scared. That’s all this is.”
“Then you don’t have anything to worry about, baby. Tell me you don’t want me and I’ll back off. We can sit here until they come for us, and then I’ll do everything I can to make sure you survive this. But if there’s even the tiniest part of you that doesn’t want to die without knowing, then don’t make me walk away.”
“There’s nowhere to walk to. We’re caught here,” she pointed out.
And they always had been. Since the day he’d met her, he’d been caught somehow. First out of fascination for the girl who knew so much, and later for the gorgeous young woman she’d become. Lou had been his. Only his, even when she dated other guys and he tried to find someone on his level that he could feel half what he felt for her. “Yes, we are. So what are we going to do about it?”
She pulled her wrist from his hand, and for a moment he thought she was going to fight him, to retreat and leave him aching. He would die aching for her.
She turned and slid the glasses off her face and set them on the nightstand. And then stared at him while she pulled her shirt over her head.
Fuck. His whole body went hard.
“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” she whispered. “I’m going to get such a lecture.”
He wasn’t sure who would lecture her, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was the fact that Lou was half naked and saying yes.
Everything changed after this. They would die or be together, and he wouldn’t let her go. He would move fucking heaven and earth to stay with her, and he would find a way to be what she needed. He tugged his own shirt overhead and tossed it to the side.
Thank god she wasn’t wearing her glasses because otherwise she would see every wound he’d taken. Even without them, she gasped.
He didn’t want her sweet sympathy. He caught her hand again. “No. Not now. I’m fine, and I won’t have you holding back on me. This might be the only time we’re together, and I want everything from you. I want you to take everything I can give you. Pretend we’re in the club. We’re at The Hideout and I’ve carried you off to a privacy room, and you obey me there. I might be a dumbass in every other aspect of my life, but not there. There I give you what you need.”
Her gaze softened. “TJ,” she began.
He twisted her wrist gently, turning her so she was held against his chest, her round ass nestled to his cock. He leaned in so he could whisper against her ear. “No TJ here. You call me Sir.”
Her breath caught, and for a second he worried she would refuse, and the sweetest huff came from her mouth. “Sir.”
That was what he needed. His cock twitched, so fucking eager. One arm wound around her waist. He had no idea how long they had, but he needed to make it good for her. “Tell me yes, Lou.”