Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
“I’ve got you,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.” He kept repeating those words.
Willow closed her eyes and breathed him in. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she gave into him, holding him, not wanting to let go.
He stroked her hair. “I bet your grandmother is happy knowing you’ve got this place.”
“Didn’t you want to buy it from her?” Willow asked.
“Yes, I did, but not anymore.” Not from the moment he saw Willow so fucking happy here.
Willow sighed. She pulled away from him and then wiped at her face. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”
He watched her for several seconds to make sure. He didn’t leave her side, and reached for his pot of noodles.
“Sometimes I have no idea what to talk to you about,” Willow said, picking up her own pot.
“You can talk to me about anything.”
“Why me?” she asked.
This made him pause as he looked toward her. “What?”
“You heard me. There’s nothing special about me, Carson. I’m not an idiot. I know who you are. I’ve heard the whispers that follow your name.”
“And that doesn’t scare you?”
She shrugged. “Sometimes, but then I’ve also seen some of the shop owners down this street say your name, and they look relieved. How can I be upset by that?” she asked.
He smiled.
“You could have anyone in the world. You’re a good-looking guy.” He was pure sex, that was the truth. “Why me?”
She was just an ordinary girl. Men and women never stopped in the street to admire her beauty. She wasn’t special. She had no powers. She was just a woman trying to get by in the world, who’d experienced a lot of pain and loss. So why did he want her?
Carson put his food back down and cupped her face. She looked into his eyes. They were a shocking blue, unlike her brown ones. She felt like she was falling into him. His eyes reminded her of the ocean, the calm before the storm. She couldn’t look away, even if she wanted to. She was held still by his gaze.
“It was your smile,” Carson said.
“My smile?” She frowned.
“Yes. The way you stared at me, you made me stop and I just couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to. Walking away from you that first day without taking you with me was one of the hardest decisions I’d ever made.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“I thought about you. For the next week. I couldn’t get you out of my head and part of me had to wonder if I made it up. I thought there was no way I could be so drawn to a woman. I never had been in my life. But, after a week, I came back to see you. I wasn’t wrong. You were amazing. Beautiful. You became a reason for me to get up in the morning.”
Tears filled her eyes. It was so beautiful, the way he looked at her.
She didn’t know what to do, so she put her hands on his chest and slowly began to slide them up, wrapping them around his neck. Going onto her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his and kissed him. There was nothing else she wanted to do at that moment.
Carson slid one of his hands to the back of her neck, and the other moved down toward her ass.
A gasp left her lips, and she tightened her hold on him. His tongue traced across her lips and when she opened her mouth, he plundered inside, deepening the kiss. She wanted to go on and on kissing him, but the sound of the doorbell stopped her.
Willow had no choice but to stop the kiss, even though she had no desire to do so.
****
Carson was not an innocent man. He spent all his life fighting. He’d tortured men, killed them. There had been many women in his life. There was nothing he hadn’t done, and yet, that kiss with Willow kept playing in his mind. Her lips felt so fucking good, and all he wanted to do was to feel her again.
The shop began to drive him insane. He wanted to close it, take Willow to his penthouse, and show her exactly what the kiss had done to him. He continued to work. By the end of the day, he even got better at handling the fabric, so it didn’t go everywhere. The remnants he’d created had gotten less.
He was tired and when Willow went to the door, flicked the lock into place, and twisted the sign to say they were closed, he wanted to get on his knees and thank her. Fucking hell, it was hard work. Harder than he thought it would be.
“It’s not always like this,” she said, giggling.
“You find this funny?”
“You looked like you were saying a prayer. This was a very good day. Very busy, but now I’ve got to do some of the internet orders.”