Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
His massive shoulders. His rock hard chest.
My hands slipped under his shirt, stroking his skin, and he groaned deep in his throat as he changed the angle of our kiss, his hand moving to the back of my neck. He anchored my head, somehow getting an even better position to explore my mouth.
I panted, burning up.
I lifted myself toward him. If he wouldn’t come to me, I’d go to him. He wrapped his arm around me and turned so I was sprawled on top of him. I was lost in him, in the push and pull of kissing him, tasting him. It was so natural to be here, with him. Pleasure pulsated through me, rising, and I wanted more.
Growling, Brett shifted, and I gasped, straddling him. I could feel him against me, where I needed him, and I grinded against him, slow, savoring.
“Jesus,” he groaned, his head falling back, his eyes closing for a second. His hands went to my thighs, at first clamping me against him, and then guiding me forward, holding, and back again, before he cursed. His hands became fists. “Billie, we need to stop.”
His words didn’t penetrate. Carnal need raced through me, making me blind to everything else going on. I was in a state of raw ache, and it was the most natural act in the world to move over him like this, as if I should’ve been here all along.
He touched my legs again. “Billie.” His voice was more clear.
It started to pierce through my haze, but I frowned, not wanting that.
I bent to him, my forehead finding his shoulder. His arms wrapped around me and set me to the side of him.
I moaned in protest, reaching for him.
“I know. I know.” His hand caught mine, and that finally woke me up.
“What?” I sat straight, panic bolting through me. “What’s wrong? Why did you stop?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head, tucking hair behind my ear. “I needed to stop us. If I didn’t…” He grimaced. “It’s our second date. I didn’t bring you here for this. I wanted to talk, share a night with you in that room.”
Right. The room. With the stars.
He’d been distant, and then we’d talked about it.
I frowned, not sure where to go from here. I mean, I wanted him. I wanted to touch him, and more. A lot more. Why was he stopping?
I groaned and flopped back on the bed. “You’re still having second thoughts about us?”
“What?” He looked down at me. “No.”
“Then why?” Some irritation slipped out.
He laughed softly. “Honestly, I don’t want to go too fast.”
“Why?”
He laughed again, louder this time. “Because…fuck. I don’t know. I’m starting not to remember with you looking at me like that.”
I paused a second. “How do I look?” I ran a hand through my hair. It was probably all messed up.
He caught my hand, using it to pull me back up to him. His voice dropped low. “You look like sex. You look amazing.”
But he wasn’t closing the distance. He held there, in my breathing space, his gaze skirting from my eyes to my mouth.
“Since I met you, we’ve been on the fast track,” he murmured. “I don’t want to fast track being with you. Kissing you. Touching you. Spending time with you. Finding out what makes you laugh, what makes your eyes soften—those are the things I want to learn along the way. Having sex…” He hesitated. “I just worry. I don’t want to fuck up with you.”
My irritation faded…slightly. “You don’t want to fuck it up by having sex with me?”
“In a nutshell.” The corner of his mouth lifted. He reached up, touching the side of my mouth with his thumb. “Will you stay with me?”
I really wanted to kiss him, but I nodded and murmured, “Yes.”
He flashed me a grin before getting up.
He showed me the bathroom I could use and brought in what I’d need—toothpaste and everything else. He brought me one of his shirts, which I loved. It was a Kings shirt with his number. It smelled like him. This shirt wasn’t ever making it back to him. It was going with me when I left in the morning.
In the bathroom, I took a moment.
Is this real?
Everything that had happened? We’d had a meet-cute, an actual meet-cute. He’d crashed two of my dates. He’d met the closest people I had to family, and our second official date was him asking me to sleep under the stars with him.
This wasn’t real.
There was going to be a universal joke pretty soon, on me.
This stuff didn’t happen to me.
Losing people, that happened to me.
People left me.
That’s why I was scared to call Vicky and Howard my parents, Lo my sister. Her girls, my nieces. Roger, my brother-in-law. It was safer to keep myself apart.
I was scared of losing them.
Or worse…
A shiver worked its way down my spine.