Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
She bit at his mouth. “Mine.”
“Mine.”
The imminency of release was transforming both of their expressions, knowledge that the end, the beginning, the everything had arrived, their mouths surged together and fused, Tallulah’s sex tightening up around his shaft in an almost unbearable, prolonged ripple, and Burgess erupted inside and out, liquid heat flooding inside of her while he pressed a guttural shout into the side of her neck, his hands grinding her down violently and intuitively on his hardness in a way that was necessary and right and also agonizing, because it prolonged her orgasm until she was slapping his shoulders and writhing on that rigid pike, exciting him further, exciting herself further while stickiness ran down the insides of her thighs and the waterfall made them the sole humans on the face of the earth. In that moment, that’s exactly what she wanted.
To have no choices to make.
No feelings to deal with.
Just to . . . be. To stay and be and lose herself in what only this man made her feel.
But as soon as they finished crashing, down, down, down and recovering with gulps of air and calming hands, Burgess read her mind before she even had a chance, letting her down carefully and pulling her into his embrace, his lips pressing a kiss to her temples, her cheeks, her eyelids. “Yeah. We belong to each other. Period. No matter what. You just have to decide if you want to be each other’s together or apart, Tallulah.” He studied her face for a long moment, adoration etched into every one of his features, before kissing her mouth long and firm, stroking back her wet hair and pressing their foreheads together one final time, making eye contact that left her knees shaking. “I’ll go find your bathing suit.”
Chapter Thirty
Burgess sat on a bench overlooking the aquamarine water of the Caribbean, shielding his eyes as the sun slowly dipped below the horizon. When it had disappeared completely, he fell back against the wooden backrest, his gaze sweeping left to the trellis adorned in white gauze that would serve as the ceremony site for Wells and Josephine’s wedding the next day. He’d arrived an hour early for the rehearsal, because he flat out had no idea what to do with himself and being confined inside his room had only made him twice as restless.
A brief check of his watch told him ten minutes remained until the wedding party was due to meet Carlos for a quick run-through of the ceremony, after which they would head to the rehearsal dinner. That meant he’d be seeing Tallulah soon.
His pulse beat out of time, like an unwound clock.
He could safely say he’d never felt this way in his life. A strange mixture of clearheaded and broken. High and low. Originally, he’d agreed to zip-line and cliff jump so he could spend time with Tallulah, but hell if something inside of him hadn’t changed today. He’d let go. He’d learned he could still do something outside of his comfort zone and it wouldn’t kill him. No, he’d actually loved the rush of hurling himself toward the water, the sense of satisfaction that spread through his limbs afterward, like he’d satisfied something inside of himself that hadn’t existed in a long time. Maybe his sense of adventure had been lurking under the surface the whole time, waiting for her to come coax it back to life.
At the very least, Burgess was more than just Sir Savage.
He had a second act in him.
But he couldn’t visualize it just then. Not without her.
Burgess flicked open the top button on his dress shirt, yanking on the knot of his tie to loosen it slightly. Damn the formal dress code for tonight’s dinner. Did Wells and Josephine somehow miss the memo that they were in Central America? He’d sweated more in the last two days than he had during his entire hockey career. Although, the perspiration beginning to form on his upper lip had a lot to do with knowing Tallulah would be there in less than five minutes now.
Yeah, he wasn’t seeing the pristine waters of the Caribbean anymore. He was seeing her completely naked, legs around his hips, begging him not to deprive her of his come. He was seeing the wide, invigorated smile on her face after she’d finished her jump into the lagoon, how his heart had flown up into his mouth in response. Her conflicted expression after they made love behind the waterfall. The pain of that was still with him now, like shrapnel from a bomb that had burrowed beneath his skin and would need a surgeon to take it all out.
He’d fought a war over the last two days . . . and it was possible he’d lost.
More than possible, really. Hadn’t he lost Tallulah that day in the hospital?