Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“You okay?” he asks, his voice husky.
“Y-Yeah.” My voice is thick with my want for him.
“I’ll see you downstairs.” He swallows hard and raises his hand. I think he’s going to touch me again, but he quickly drops it to his side and leaves me alone.
I stand still and listen to his footsteps as they pound down the stairs, the sound the same rhythm as the beat of my heart in my chest. When I can no longer hear his footsteps, I move to get dressed. My hands tremble as I finish drying off and pull on my clothes. I don’t know if I’m cold or if it’s my body's reaction to his touch. Either way, I know that I need to be near him. I don’t think about what that means or what I’m going to do about it. I rush through, brushing out my hair before tying it up wet and rushing down the steps to see him.
“Thanks for that,” I say when I make it to the kitchen.
“I’ll be sure to add spider slayer to my résumé,” he teases. “Ready to eat?” he asks, pulling the baking sheet of bread sticks from the oven.
“Starving,” I tell him honestly. What I don’t tell him is that even though my stomach is growling, I’d pass up the opportunity of food for one taste of his lips pressed to mine. I watch as he makes us both a plate.
“Are we eating in here or in the living room?”
“Another movie?” I ask.
“You pick. I’ll be right in with drinks.”
Taking our plates I set his on the table while I settle on the couch with mine. Reaching for the remote, I scroll through our options, pulling up a series I’ve never seen before.
“Have you seen this?” he asks from behind me. Walking around the couch, he hands me a beer and sets one for himself on the end table.
“No.”
“Me either. I say we go for it.”
I shrug and hit Play. Together we eat in silence as we allow ourselves to get lost in the series. It’s really good, and by the third episode, we’re both addicted. By the fourth episode, my head is in his lap, his hands are running through my hair, my hair tie I used to put it up earlier today, long since forgotten, and I have a blanket thrown over me. Conrad Riggins and his touch are quickly becoming my addiction.
Chapter 8
Conrad
The bathroom door closing down the hall wakes me from sleep. My cock is already hard from the dream I was having about her. Aspen. Now to know that she's just down the hall, naked and wet, I'm so hard it's painful.
I carried her to bed again last night. I wanted her to ask me to stay. I wanted to crawl under the covers and hold her against me all night long. That's not me. That's never been who I am. I never bring women back to my place so I can get away. I usually blame it on work or need to help one of my brothers, but I always find an excuse not to stay.
Now here I am with Aspen, and all I want is to stay. Stay with her. My mind takes me back to last night when I heard her scream. I couldn't climb the stairs fast enough to get to her. My heart stalled in my chest until I laid eyes on her and could see she was okay. I held her mostly naked body next to mine, and it took every ounce of effort I possessed to pull away from her. I don’t know how much longer I can resist her. Hell, I don’t even know if I want to resist her anymore.
My phone rings, and I see Grant’s goofy face smiling at me. “What’s up, brother?” I answer.
“How are things there? Is it still snowing?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m still in bed. Give me a second.” Tossing off the covers, I climb to my feet and make my way to the window. “It finally stopped. Let’s hope they can get to the roads today.” I can hear him exhale with relief through the line.
“The roads are the least of my worries. We can get that taken care of.” He doesn’t say it, but I know what he’s thinking. We can hire a private contractor who has a snowplow and dump truck for salt to treat the road. That won’t stop us from having this wedding. “Why are you still in bed?”
“Aspen and I started this series last night, and we watched like five episodes before we both dropped to exhaustion.”
“How are things going?”
“Good. Fine. Good.”
“That’s a lot of fine and good, little brother.”
I sigh into the line. “I think it’s just cabin fever.”
“Are the two of you not getting along?” There’s concern in his voice.