Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
She’s going to make me work for everything—every date, every smile, every laugh, every word—but that’s okay because I’m wearing her down. I can feel it. Look at how far I’ve already come. In a short span of time, I went from paying for a lap dance to taking her out on a date. Soon, she’ll be legally changing her last name to Alexander.
“You ready?” she asks, knocking me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah.” I glance at her sister. “You sure you don’t want to join?”
“Nope, I’m good. I’ll just be here binging on Netflix and eating everything on the menu.” She glances at her sister. “On Micah’s tab, of course. He insisted.”
Sienna gives her a faux glare. “Behave.”
“Always, Mom,” she says, taking the flowers from Sienna. “Now you two have fun, but don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. And if you do, remember ‘No Glove, No—”
Sienna reaches out and covers her mouth. “Nope, you do not need to finish that statement.” She releases her hand and says to me, “Let’s go before I change my mind.”
Ellie’s cackling can be heard as we close the door behind us and head to the elevator. Since Lincoln and I live in the penthouses, our places are only accessible from the main elevator, so we have to take one down and then get on the other to go back up with my key card.
“Umm, what are we doing?” Sienna asks, glancing up at the numbers in confusion.
“Going up to my place,” I say, as the elevator doors open and we step off onto my floor.
Her head whips around and she hits me with a hard glare. “Seriously? Can you get any more cliché? What part of I’m not going to have sex with you did you not understand?” she hisses.
The elevator door slides open, and I step out, but she doesn’t follow. Instead, she stands there with her arms crossed over her chest, her nose pointed upward in a stubborn gesture.
“I’m not going in there with you. I knew this was a bad idea, but of course—”
Her words are cut off when I stalk back into the elevator and push her gently against the wall, having enough of her shit.
“Who hurt you?” I ask. “Who caused you to be so guarded? Is it just men you don’t trust or people in general?” Her blue eyes widen, and she shakes her head, refusing to say a word.
“Jesus.” I slam my palm against the wall, caging her in so our bodies are so close I can feel her warmth radiating off her, smell her feminine scent. Our eyes lock, and I watch as her features morph from fear to longing, to anger, to resigned. And I’m still staring at her when I see the light switch go off and her emotions shut down completely.
“I don’t stand a chance, do I?” I whisper, reaching up with my other hand and trailing my knuckles down her cheek. “You don’t even know me, yet you’re so quick to make accusations and assumptions.”
She swallows thickly, and her lids flutter closed for several seconds before she opens them back up, pain radiating in her eyes. “Can you blame me? Given the circumstances under which we met?”
“So, based on our unconventional start, you’ve already pushed me into the box with whoever hurt you and threw away the key. It doesn’t really matter what I do, I’ll never be able to claw my way out.”
Her responding silence is deafening, yet I can hear the truth loud and clear. For the first time ever, I’m at such a loss. I’ve always gone after what I wanted, and as long as I was willing to put in the work, I would achieve what I was after.
Until Sienna.
Despite her trepidation, there’s a part of her that wants me. At the very least, she’s attracted to me. I can see it in her eyes when she’s straddling my lap at the club, when she’s dancing and looks out at the audience in search of me. But she’s scared because she’s been hurt. And for the first time in my life, I don’t know how to fix it.
It would be a helluva lot easier to walk away, find a willing woman to spread her legs. I’ve been with dozens of women over the years. Women who would let me fuck them any way I want without question, who desire my company, who would marry me in a heartbeat.
Yet I can’t get this stubborn, jaded, beautiful woman out of my head. It’s become more than a sexual conquest. I want to get to know her. Hear her thoughts. Learn everything there is to know about her. With other women, I could never see anything beyond one night. But when I look at Sienna, I see late nights out together and lazy mornings spent in bed. I see family dinners. Weekend getaways. For the first time, I can see so much more… and it’s with her.