Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
Slow and tender and so bittersweet it’s hard to breathe.
Kissing Destiny tastes like coming home after a hard day and smelling a decadent pie.
She’s a warm bath, a glass of wine.
A sip of forgetfulness I need.
If only it wasn’t so addictive, greedily drinking her sweetness as the darkness fades into something brighter.
Goddamned stunning.
Just three days alone with her combined, and I’ve forgotten all the reasons I ever despised her. If only I could see myself with someone like her. After Serena, with anyone.
But I don’t.
I can’t.
My heart is scar tissue, and Dess deserves better than damaged goods.
Prolonging this shit by making her think I could ever give her something more feels catastrophic.
I should get up right now and walk the hell away.
She hooks a leg over my hip and looks down at me, her lips red and swollen. Her hair falls past her face and she brushes it back.
“I’m only going to say this once,” she says, shifting so she’s over me, the husky lump moving to the floor by my fireplace.
I’m hard again, and by the way she positions herself, she knows it.
“Just once,” she whispers.
“Okay, once. What?”
“It’s not your fault.” She sinks down on me then.
The mingled wetness from last time makes me slide inside her almost immediately.
My hands clasp her ass like she’s the only thing keeping me from drowning in regrets.
Now, I don’t ever want her to leave this bed.
It’s a crazy, possessive need that has me flinging her down on my cock until her toes curl and her lungs stop working.
“Don’t need to hear you say it,” I tell her.
“I know. Which is why I told you once, and I’ll never mention it again.”
I suck in a sharp breath as she takes my hands and places them on her breasts. She rolls her hips and I rise instinctively to meet her.
“Say it,” I demand.
“I didn’t know her, but you loved her. I get it.” Her hands are still on mine, holding me to her as she moves, taking my strokes. “I just want you to know, Shepherd, she was wrong. So wrong.”
I can’t look away.
Her beauty blazes down at me like a tropical sun.
I’m not usually breathless, but right now, I can’t breathe.
I don’t know what she’s doing to me. The whole world has inverted.
When she kisses me again, she tastes like closure.
Like painful endings.
Like new beginnings.
Slow, slow, she takes me deeper, her hips working faster, and I lie back and let her.
Let her go to town.
There’s nothing sexier than Destiny Lancaster riding my cock in this moment.
I let her guide my hands, one at her breast, the other at the place our bodies meet.
This time, when she’s close, she holds back.
I can feel her waiting for me.
Goddamn.
This isn’t fucking anymore.
The distance we had before is gone, yet she’s right here with me, eyes blazing and mouth open and breath so worn.
“Together. Please,” she begs.
The sound of her voice pulls me over the edge as I thrust like mad, burying myself in her.
Yeah, I’m fucking falling.
Falling so hard I might never peel myself off the ground.
And we fall together, long and hard until this wild, gorgeous woman collapses on top of me, still panting for dear life.
I barely have time to pull out and wrap my arms around her before a huge, fluffy weight pounces on us.
“Molly!” Destiny squeals.
I’m fucking winded.
Groaning under the weight of a dog who looks too damn smug, almost like she knows exactly what we were doing. As Molly rolls right over, wiggling around the bed to find her place, the storm of emotion dissipates.
I can finally laugh again.
“Sorry,” Destiny says, maneuvering the dog so she’s not crowding us. “She does this thing where she crawls out of bed and then jumps back in later. My little cannonball.”
“You’re lucky I like dogs.”
“Even on your bed?” She smiles.
“If she’s a nice dog—and housebroken.” I shrug.
It’s probably a good thing we have this distraction, so we’re not lost in what this means or doesn’t.
Hell, or maybe I’m the one who needs the distraction.
Hell, maybe I’m the only one putting meaning into this where it shouldn’t exist.
Destiny wraps one arm around Molly and the other around me. The pup slowly settles, content in her throne of tangled sheets.
“Just a few minutes, girl. Then it’s back to the floor,” she says with a yawn.
Molly licks my face, and against my better judgment, I close my eyes and pass out.
16
A Little Sit-Down (Destiny)
To say I’m the worst person ever is an exaggeration.
Probably.
Like, it’s probably a bit much to go ahead and walk the streets with someone ringing a bell behind me and calling “Shame, shame!”
Still. I feel like roadkill drenched in turpentine and set on fire.
Molly tugs at her leash, excited to be headed back to Alki Beach again, the place that always draws me back when the time comes to process my emotions.