Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Finally, he stopped me, panting comically and holding my hips in place and begging through clenched teeth, “Don’t move, don’t—”
“I shouldn’t get off of you?” I asked, rising up a little, and his sharp inhalation strangled on the way in. The point of my tongue slid from one canine tooth to the other as I regarded him maliciously and dropped suddenly back down. “Turnabout is fair play. You do this to me all the time. Torturing my poor, sensitive body right after I’ve orgasmed. You deserve to know what it feels like.”
Neil grimaced and held his breath until it appeared there would be no further torture. “Careful, you might inspire me to empathy. And then I’d have to stop doing that to you all the time.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder and breathed in the smell of his sweat and his skin. I nuzzled against him and sighed contentedly. “I didn’t think you’d ever top Paris.”
“Well, in the absence of sex toys, I find a marriage proposal often does the trick.” He chuckled sleepily. I never felt so protected and sure of my place in the world as when I was in his arms.
My eyes slid closed, and I almost fell asleep right there in his lap, but something stirred in my brain. I sat up, and he slipped from my body with a little sigh of relief. I took his face in my hands. “I have an idea.”
“I fear I am finished for the night, darling,” he said wryly. “I am still recovering from a very traumatic transplant.”
I snorted. “No, you pervert. I think we should stay here a few more days.”
We were supposed to leave the evening of the second, and I knew Neil was already panicking about the thought of missing that first day he could go back to work. I saw the sharp spike of fear in his eyes, like I’d just told him I was considering canceling his birthday.
“Think about it,” I went on quickly. “We can leave Sunday night, you can be back on Monday. Do you really want your first day back in the office to be on a Friday? You’d be so frustrated.”
“That’s true,” he said cautiously. “But I feel like the longer I delay…”
“Your company will still be around when you get back. Porteras and Auto Watch will still be around. Let’s just spend a few extra days together.” I chewed my bottom lip as I watched him consider. “We just got engaged. Let’s enjoy the moment, before we have to go back to reality. Please. For me.”
He sighed, and I knew from the sound of it that I had won. “I can’t say no to a damned thing you truly want, do you know that?”
“I do.” I leaned my cheek against his neck. “And you know it’s the same for me.”
“Come on,” he said, patting my bottom. “Let’s go up to bed.”
Snuggled beneath the thick blankets, I toyed with the ring around my finger. I lifted my hand, and I could still see the stones glittering, even in the dark. It was a nice ring, but it paled in comparison to the other gift he’d given me tonight. Neil was worth a thousand times more than any diamond, no matter the cost.
His lips brushed my shoulder, and his arm tightened over my waist. “I can never sell this place now, you know. It’s the place where I proposed, there’s too much sentimental value.”
I smirked to myself and wriggled down closer to him. “So, I got three things I wanted for Christmas.”
He growled and buried his face in my neck.
* * * *
Neil and I decided not to announce our engagement right away. He wanted to wait for the perfect time to tell Emma, in person, when we were all together. My mother would be the first person to hear, but I could hold off calling her until we got back to New York.
Our additional three days in Reykjavik were relaxed, happy, and totally boring. We ignored our phones, slept in, snacked a little too much, and prepared for our upcoming return to reality.
I’d worried that it would be strange, going back to life in New York after spending so much time in England. Having a life at all again, after cancer had isolated us from the world for the past year. We’d slowly been coming back to normal since Neil had gotten out of the hospital in August. But returning to our Manhattan apartment after the holidays felt like an official stamp; the hellish past year was over, and now we could get on with our lives.
I called my mom on our first night back. While Neil was on a video conference with Valerie and a man from a German publishing company, I paced the huge living room, trailing my fingers along the back of the leather couch as I got the courage to place my call.