Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 191(@200wpm)___ 153(@250wpm)___ 127(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 191(@200wpm)___ 153(@250wpm)___ 127(@300wpm)
It was hard to maintain a cranky expression with him smiling like a cat who’d finally caught the canary he’d been chasing for days on end.
“Hmph. I’ll permit it. By the way, I’m not paying penance. I prefer to think I got a timely reminder about what’s important in life. This is a good place, but…”
“What?” he prodded.
“Sometimes I think I’m playing it too safe. It’s comfortable. It’s what I know. I’m not taking chances the way I used to, and…I can’t tell if that’s just part of getting older or if I’m taking the easy route.”
Shit. That was a lot of sharing. What the fuck was up with me?
Cameron lowered his eyes solemnly and inclined his head. “I know how that feels.”
I huffed incredulously. “How? You’re living the dream. Your books are being made into movies, for fuck’s sake.”
“Yes, but…” He tapped his temple. “This is where I live. My world is smaller than you’d think.”
That struck me as lonely and kind of sad. I didn’t want to dwell on our collective inadequacies, though.
“The real world is overrated,” I commented, nudging his knee. “And for the record…I’m more of a nibbler than a biter.”
“Is that so?” His eyes took on a stormy, intense hue as he leaned forward and set his hand on my thigh.
There was nothing overtly sexual in the maneuver, but there didn’t need to be. We’d been skirting around a near-constant buzz of desire from the moment he’d stepped onto the porch looking like a bear emerging from his cave. A hot bear, though kind of rumpled and wild-eyed. And I’d been fighting a peculiar urge to caress his cheek and ask if he’d slept at all over the past three days. Somehow, I’d kept my mouth shut and my hands to myself.
It wasn’t my style to fawn over a lover. Cameron didn’t need that anyway. He was older and wiser and—well, I assumed he was wiser. Truthfully, his intensity had a haunted quality that hinted at secrets. He pulled off the charming artist for short stints, but I wondered about the man behind that suave mask. The one who’d flinched as if in pain before suggesting we grab something to eat.
If I were a betting man, I’d say he didn’t hate Christmas…he was afraid of it. He was hiding from something in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Vermont, snooping in other people’s lives and hoping inspiration kept darkness at bay.
Christ, we made quite a pair. Two grown-ass men licking old wounds we did our best to ignore.
I’d heard once that lost souls gravitated to each other. That made perfect sense to me. It explained this yearning.
I hadn’t wanted to know anyone like this in a very long time. I hadn’t been willing to show scars or share my defeats. I figured they were visible anyway, so why talk about them? Yet here I was…spilling secrets over a bowl of chili.
And right now, I wanted a piece of him. His thoughts, his hopes…his body.
Yeah, I really fucking wanted his body.
I set my hand over his and moved it up my thigh to my crotch. Cameron growled, low and needy, as he scooted his chair closer and squeezed my package. I lifted my hips into his touch and licked my lips. He leaned in, brushing his lips along my jawline and ghosting them over my mouth while rubbing me like a genie in a bottle till my cock was rock hard behind my zipper.
When I couldn’t take the pressure for another second, I cupped his neck and drew him to me, crashing my mouth to his.
We made out in a frenzy, sucking at tongues as if we were battling for dominance. The frenetic push and pull was its own kind of aphrodisiac. Each lick and stroke fed a fire that consumed both of us. Suddenly, it was very fucking hot in that kitchen, and I desperately needed to lose every stitch of clothing on my body.
I broke the kiss with a gasp and tugged at his shirt. “Take it off. I need to feel you.”
Cameron stood as he unbuttoned his shirt. “Upstairs. Come on.”
We stumbled through the house, bouncing off walls as we undressed along the way. I could navigate as far as the stairs, but I let him take over from there. He grasped my hand and led me through a wide corridor adorned with peeling, faded wallpaper. There had to be five possible doors leading to his room. He threw open the last door on the right and turned on the overhead light, unbuckling my belt as he tongue-fucked my mouth.
I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to properly gauge my surroundings, but I could tell the room was large with high ceilings and a huge picture window covered with silky curtains. I spotted a desk covered with open books as I fell onto the massive king-sized bed. I kicked off my boots and wriggled out of my jeans. I was about to strip out of my boxer briefs, but the sight of Cameron kicking his sweats and briefs aside made my mouth water.