Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
He’d been great since the moment he came to the rescue like a knight on a motorcycle, taking charge, putting a temporary fix into place while he worked on the permanent one, being good with the kids, letting me eat dinner without interruption for once.
Then, then he had to get some primal part of me going as I walked down the stairs and saw my baby asleep on his chest.
I couldn’t have known that such an image could be so hot. But it was. So much so that I knew I needed to get away from him as quickly as possible.
So I took my baby upstairs and put her down in her playard before putting the TV on quietly. New house, new noises, I didn’t want anything to wake her up when she was sleeping so peacefully for once.
Which was exactly what I needed to be doing.
It had been… a day.
From the stuff in the range that I had to actively remind myself not to think about all damn day, to the encounter with my old super, the threat of being found, the warning from Miss Patricia, the cooking, the power outage, moving everything from the cottage to the main house, the showers, everything, it had been a lot.
But instead of climbing in that very comfortable looking bed, when I hadn’t had a bed to myself in a really, really long time, and the permanent crick in my neck and ache in my lower back were constant reminders of that, I found myself making my way into the hall, closing the bedroom door with a quiet click, checking in on the other two who were already fast asleep, then making my way across the hall.
Toward his bedroom.
Where I really, really needed not to go.
For oh so many very smart, very rational reasons.
But I wasn’t feeling smart or rational right then.
I wasn’t even thinking as a mom of three kids who didn’t need any more confusion or upheaval in their lives.
I was just, for the first time in a long time, thinking like a woman who was so, so close to something she wanted.
Anticipation sizzled across my skin as my feet moved across the cool floorboards. I paused outside of his door, heart pounding, nerves fluttering.
God, yes, nerves.
It had been so, so long since I’d been around a man I wanted.
I was almost afraid I would forget what to do.
Then again, there had been no issues at the range earlier.
Confidence mildly restored, I raised my hand and knocked as quietly as I could, telling myself that if he didn’t hear me, that I was going to go right back across the hall, into the bed, get some damn rest, and forget all about this insane idea.
I held my breath, listening, and there it was. Footsteps getting closer.
Then the door was opening.
And there he was.
Shirtless.
Granted, I’d eye-banged the hell out of this man’s naked torso many times already. But, you know, from a distance. Like a complete creep.
The impact of it up close was tenfold. All those little dips of muscles just begging you to trace your finger between. And, God, the scent of him up close. Just a hint of something spicy. Cologne? Traces of soap? I wasn’t sure, but it begged you to come a little closer.
And, yes, I wanted to be closer.
But he was looking at me.
I needed to say something, to have some excuse for being at his bedroom door.
“I just wanted to thank you again,” I said. “For… everything,” I added, waving around at the house in general.
Had his gaze just gone to my lips?
No.
Wishful thinking, I was pretty sure.
But then his hand was shooting out, grabbing me with strong fingers behind my neck, drawing me closer by it until our bodies brushed.
His heated gaze was on me, looking, questioning, likely waiting for a rejection.
Rejecting him was the very last thing on my mind right then, though.
Then his lips were meeting mine.
And it all fell away.
The worries of the day, the past few weeks, months, years.
All there was in the world was this man and the way he was teasing shivers out of me with just his lips and tongue.
Then his hands.
The one on the back of my neck pulled me fully inside his room. The other went to my hip, pushing me against the door after he closed it.
They were searching then, one slipping up into my wet hair, curling, and tugging until my head angled to the side, opening up the side of my neck as his lips left mine, and blazed a path downward. Over my temple, cheek, jaw, then, finally, my neck, dragging a little tremble out of me at the contact.
His other hand left my hip, moving downward until he snagged my knee, drawing my leg up, and hooking it around his hip, opening me up to him as he stepped in closer, his cock pressed against me, making desire slice through me.