Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Fender snorted. “Well, having a chapped ass is definitely something that would have me acting like a crazy motherfucker.”
I flipped him off and strode out of the bar, still smelling the scent of peaches—Ellen’s signature scent since she was a seventeen-year-old—and tried to tell my dick to behave.
It didn’t listen.
Chapter 11
Just because you have a beard, doesn’t mean you’re a man. Vaginas can grow hair, too.
-Things you probably shouldn’t say to a pissed off male with a beard
Ellen
I was on the verge of tears, this time due to the fact that the man I’d been in love with since I was seventeen years old wouldn’t stop talking to me. He wouldn’t stop texting me. He just wouldn’t leave me to my depression in peace.
“Gonna run away every time the going gets rough?” came that annoying, amused voice.
I picked up a rock and chucked it in the direction of the vacant lot behind the bar that the Dixie Wardens had taken over for the night.
“What’s it to you?” I asked, bending down for another rock.
The man at my back took advantage of my position and slapped his work-roughened palm against my ass.
Crack.
I yelped and spun around, indignation filling my features, and glared.
“What the fuck?”
He shrugged.
“You don’t want me to smack it, then don’t bend over in front of me,” he challenged.
“So, that’s just…what the fuck, Jessie?” I might or might not have screeched that, but dammit! I was just so damn upset!
Why did he have to talk to me like the past fourteen years didn’t happen? Like he didn’t break my heart when he’d promised he would keep it safe?
His grin was that same grin that always used to make me weak in the knees. Though, now it was even better. Or maybe I was older and my knees were starting to give out.
Either way, having him give me that look—the one that promised me sweet ecstasy—was enough to get me to put some distance between us that I knew needed to be there.
Or, I would have if he didn’t catch me around the waist, refusing to allow me that distance I had when I started to step away from him.
“Jessie,” I planted my hands onto his chest and pushed with all my might, but he didn’t budge. I was still planted firmly in one of his arms.
“How about we hash this shit out,” he said while the saddest song, Sweet Home Alabama, played on the outdoor speakers.
Jesus, didn’t they realize that people came outside to get the fuck away from the noise?
“We’re not hashing anything out,” I denied. “There is nothing TO hash out.”
He squeezed me impossibly closer, and dropped his mouth until he was practically breathing against my lips.
His beard was tickling my skin and making my fingers ache to stretch up and snatch him to me. But that would be bad.
Bad, bad, bad.
“I’ve missed you every day for fourteen years.”
My eyes closed.
“I’ve wanted to wrap you up in my arms like this, feel you against my body, every single night since I was stupid enough to leave.”
I whimpered.
“I wanted to see you barefoot in our kitchen, raising our babies.”
My breath hitched.
“I wanted to see you walk across that stage to get your MD.”
A tear slipped down my cheek.
“I wanted to be your first patient. But not at an actual hospital. In our bed. With you on top of me. Making sure I was healthy for you.”
I gasped in a breath.
“But most of all, I wanted to talk to you. To share my laughter and my life. I wanted you to hug me and kiss me at random times. I wanted you back so bad that my heart hasn’t stopped hurting for fourteen. Fucking. Years.”
Sit still, Ellen. He’ll let you go. Do not kiss him. Do not kiss him.
Shit.
I kissed him.
My lips touched his.
I lost control.
I threw my arms around his shoulders and pulled him closer to me. And I kissed him like the last fourteen years hadn’t happened. Like I was his. Like tomorrow would never come.
The second my mouth touched down on his, he opened for me, allowed my tongue entrance, and gave back everything I had to give and more.
“I’ve missed you,” he gasped out, then took control.
And by control, I mean total and complete control.
He picked me up, forced my legs around his slim hips, and walked us deeper into the shadows. I felt something hard at my back moments later, and then he pushed his entire body weight into me, allowing me to feel for the first time in a very long, long time exactly what I did to him.
“Goddammit,” he growled. “I’ve wanted this exact same scenario for years.
Yet, here I am, between your legs once again, without protection.”
I froze.
I knew just as well as he did where this was going. Knew where we were headed. Had known the moment I fell asleep crying in his arms that, eventually, we would get back here.