Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 159208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 796(@200wpm)___ 637(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 796(@200wpm)___ 637(@250wpm)___ 531(@300wpm)
“Nothing’s wrong, Nevermore,” I whisper.
I mean it.
There’s something completely fucked in his head.
She needs to know she’s wanted, that she’s not crazy for hurting or confiding in me. She’s damn sure not crazy for aching to feel desired.
I’ve never wanted anything so badly in my life.
She wants it too. I know because she said it in verse when she slipped.
It’s not like the night I missed my chance thanks to a dumbass driver without a muffler. When I wait for her to look up with my eyes burning, she doesn’t lean in or tilt her head.
She doesn’t know it’s coming.
There’s a halting second where I just hold her. Her surprise grows when my arms drop from her shoulders to her waist, pull her in, cradle her tighter, and I can’t hold back.
I press my lips to hers like a man who’s starved, even knowing full well she’s just as ravenous.
In a split second, she opens her mouth and whimpers against my lips.
All soft, pleading sweetness.
She’s fucking shaking.
I’m not sure if my heart is still beating, but I won’t miss my chance.
I’m not missing another opportunity with this woman. Not tonight or ever.
With a hot rumble in my throat, I push my tongue in her mouth, slowly and fiercely.
I’ll show her she’s not some pitiful conquest. Not a mistake born from emotion and all the weird turmoil around us tonight.
I need her to see she’s cherished.
Her teeth graze against my tongue. I groan now, dipping in, tasting her fully and loving and hating it because I know I’m already addicted.
Goddammit, Dakota.
Her arms tighten around my shoulders.
I feel her nails pressing against my shirt, scratching, begging.
With a rough sound, I move in, pushing her against the wall, taking what’s mine and exiling every doubt from my brain. We’re way past reasonable thoughts.
We’re two mouths, two bodies, two souls drawn together by a thread of pure lust. When she gives me those soft green eyes, I break, driving my tongue against hers as it flutters softly against mine.
This is it.
All I have to do is grab her, toss her over my shoulder, and—
Clank!
There’s a sharp, fragmented noise that startles us both.
Something cold and wet runs down my back.
Dakota jumps back, breaking our kiss, blinking in confusion.
“Nevermore?” My voice is ragged, far more desperate than I want it to be.
“Sorry. Oh, the wine,” She bends, trying to collect the remnants of her wineglass.
“Leave it. You could cut your hands.”
“Leave it?” she echoes.
I nod, and this time when I pull her closer, I’m far more demanding. I’m not losing her over a broken damn glass I’ll sweep up later.
She doesn’t hesitate, at least, folding her arms around my neck.
Her lips find mine automatically.
Our tongues meet again, twined and hungry.
It’s getting hard to breathe. Even the air itself with this woman—that Dakota hint of mint and sweetness—makes me feel more intoxicated than the two glasses of Cabernet I tossed back earlier.
“Oh, God,” she moans, leaning into me, her knees going weak as I kiss her off her feet.
My grip on her tightens, shoring her up, my fingers tingling with pins and needles. I need to feel her, roam her bare skin, squeeze her nipples, plunge into her drenched depths.
These hands need to take her apart and claim every piece.
I swallow something hard in my throat, moving away from her mouth to kiss her jaw, then igniting a neat line of fire down her neck.
“Linc, what are you doing?” she whispers with an innocence that makes my cock seethe.
“The fuck does it look like?” I snarl, nipping at the space under her ear with my teeth.
She shudders so intensely she almost falls over.
“Do—” I stop to run my tongue along her jawbone.
“Oh.”
“You want—” My lips swipe across the top of her neck.
Her arms tighten around my neck. She’s trembling.
“Me to—” I trace my tongue down her skin before I breathe out, “Stop?”
“O-only if you want to.” She draws in a deep breath, staring with wide, needy eyes.
Is that an easy out for me, or does she think I’m not enjoying this?
“I’m asking what you want, woman,” I rasp. “Tell me now. Sixty more seconds of this and I can’t hold back.”
“I-I wish this could last forever,” she whispers, her lips pursed in a biteable pout.
I chuckle. “You being poetic or trying to tease me into the ground?”
Our eyes lock.
“You choose.”
Enough.
My choice is fucking sealed, written in the lust churning through my veins.
I lower my head, pressing my forehead against hers like I’m marking her skin. “I can’t make this night last forever, but I’ll make it memorable.”
Again, she shudders, tempting my hands to start tearing off clothes. I don’t care if they’re a shredded heap on the floor soon, I’ll replace them all.
“Do you say that to all the girls?” she whispers.
I move one hand to her hair, running my fingers through light-blond silk. I shove my lips to hers again, taking her mouth good and deep before I answer.