Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 164533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 823(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164533 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 823(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
“See?” I said. “You are a good man even if you might have secret thoughts about me you’re not prepared to share.” I poked him lightly in the chest.
“I love it when you tease me,” he said in a fond, husky voice, caressing my cheek again. A shiver swept its shadowy tendrils across the back of my neck.
A new feeling fell upon me, one that fizzled in a pleasantly buzzy, fluttery sensation beneath my skin. I hadn’t been close to a man, nor so attracted to one, in a long, long time. Jesse and I had stopped having sex years ago, which was a relief in a way. It had been its own sort of horror story to have to be intimate with the man who abused you. I’d suspected he was having sex with other women to satiate that need, but I’d never discovered real proof. I hadn’t cared, though. Selfishly, I was happy to be left alone in that regard. But still, no one had touched me, kissed me, or caressed me in a loving manner in so very long, and a part of me yearned for it. If only so Jesse wasn’t the last man to have done it.
“Rhys,” I said, a tremor in my voice as I asked, “Will you kiss me?”
A gruff breath left him at the request, his gaze lasering into me.
“It doesn’t have to mean anything,” I rambled on. “I just haven’t been kissed in a really long time, and I’d like to know if—”
Before I could finish the sentence, his hands cupped my face as his lips crashed down on mine.
27.
Charli
Rhys’ tongue dipped into my mouth, and my brain went offline for a second. I mean, God. He drank me in, savoured me in a way that made my toes curl. No one else had ever kissed me the way Rhys did.
Before I knew it, I’d crawled into his lap and hitched up my dress to straddle his waist as our lips and tongues collided. I didn’t even care that my legs were exposed, my panties, too. A rush of wet heat flooded between my thighs, a tidal wave of arousal sweeping me up in its current as I ran my hands through Rhys’ hair. His nose nuzzled mine, our breaths laboured and loud in the quiet room. One of his hands came up, sinking into my hair at the base of my skull while his other hand went to my lower back, fingers splayed. The heat of his palm melted me, how his lips moved to the corner of my mouth then travelled down my neck, giving me goosebumps as he licked and teased.
“What do you,” Rhys started to say between kisses, distracting me from the sweet pleasure of his mouth. “What do you mean?”
“Huh?” I responded dumbly, and he finally continued, “What do you mean you haven’t been kissed in a long time? How long?”
I couldn’t reply because his lips were already back on mine, his hands sliding around to my neck, thumbs brushing my tender collarbones.
“Not important,” I finally managed to blurt, my hands moving down his chest like they had a mind of their own. A groan rumbled from him when I reached for his belt. I pulled at the buckle and glanced down, my cheeks aflame when I saw the solid outline of him.
He was hard.
I could make a man want me. That part of me wasn’t broken, at least.
I’d gotten the buckle partly undone when his hands clasped mine, stilling them in their pursuit. “You asked for a kiss,” he said, breathless as his thumbs rubbed the insides of my wrists.
“Can I ask for more?” I replied, needily inching towards him, just as breathless.
“Not tonight.” His words were both final and apologetic like it pained him not to give me everything I wanted. I deflated a little, sitting back, chest heaving.
“Okay,” I said at last, frowning as I slid off his lap and pushed my dress back down over my thighs. Rejection tried to wheedle its way into my mind, but then Rhys reached across the couch and caught my elbow in one hand and my chin in the other, forcing my eyes to his.
“Charli, this isn’t because I don’t want you.” His expression was conflicted like he was trying to find the right words. I waited, my heart all twisted up and confused as I stared at him. Rhys let out a quiet, joyless sound. “You have to know that.”
I caressed his cheek. “It’s all right. I get it. You don’t have to explain.”
I knew it was hardly a massive turn on to make out with a woman who’d just been weeping over her abusive ex. Even though Rhys was clearly still attracted to me on some level, a lingering affection from our time together as teenagers perhaps, he wasn’t going to have sex with me on the couch in Aidan’s office. I knew how his mind worked, and he’d feel like he was taking advantage of me while I was in an unsteady emotional state. And he’d be right about that. What he didn’t know was that I’d never regret being with him, no matter the situation. There was no part of Rhys that could ever take advantage of me because I always wanted him—on my good days and on my bad ones.