Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 81504 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81504 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 408(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 272(@300wpm)
“Just like that,” he groans. I can see it in his face, in the lines between his brows and concern etched into his features, that he’s worried about something. Whatever it was that Keenan told him, I suppose. But as we make love, with every stroke inside me, every little moan I make or groan he makes, I can see some of that tension begin to evaporate a little more.
“Christ, you make me crazy,” he growls, lifting my hips as he strokes in and out of me, and it feels so damn good. Everything from today’s a distant memory as he holds me, as waves lap at our skin and I ride him, until his head falls back and he groans his release.
“Fuck yes,” he says in a choked whisper. “That’s it, baby.”
My own orgasm, sweeter than the ones before, finally hits with the power of a thunderstorm.
Crash!
“Oh, God. Tully…”
My head drops to his shoulder. He runs his hand down the back of my head to my back. I don’t finish my thought, and he doesn’t ask me to. I’m glad. I was about to say, I love you.
* * *
Chapter 11
Tully
I’m not a romantic kinda guy. I’m pragmatic and grounded, and it’s how I’ve always been. I don’t believe in things like “soulmates” or “destiny.” I live my life to the fullest in the here and now, the present. But Jesus, if the past few days with McKenna haven’t felt bloody magical.
I wake with the most gorgeous woman by my side. She looks younger when she’s sleeping, more innocent, probably because she takes her glasses off. We replaced her glasses, and I think they’re the cutest fucking things I’ve ever seen. I make her fuck me at least once a day wearing nothing but the glasses, and when she does this thing, lowering her glasses and looking over the lenses at me, I get fucking hard on demand. And she knows it.
One of her favorite things to do is to give me that look when we’re in a room crowded full of people. One of my favorite things to do is prowl up to her, take her by the elbow, and march her to the nearest place of privacy we can find and fuck her senseless. We’ve christened the greenhouse, the library, the interrogation room and meeting room, and every fucking closet in the mansion.
No regrets.
About a week after she’s arrived, we’ve settled into a sort of routine. I go with her to school and stand vigil in her classroom while she teaches. I’ve come to know the boys, and they’re getting to know me as well. I love hearing her teach and seeing her interact with her students. I can’t help but sometimes think she’d make an excellent mother.
We come back to the mansion and eat with the others. I do the work I couldn’t do while at school while she corrects work and prepares lessons, and I come home to her in the evening. It’s a long day, and we both work hard, but I’m seeing the appeal of having a woman to come home to, and I’m making a plan for how to keep her here with me.
I don’t want her to go home.
I wake a few weeks after she first came here to find she isn’t next to me. I rub a hand across my brow, waking up. I came to bed after a meeting with Keenan eager to feel her again, woke her up with my mouth between her legs, and seconds later her fingers tangled in my hair.
Jesus, she’s addictive.
“McKenna?”
I hear the sound of a flushing toilet, and then the door opens. She looks white as a ghost, and I sit up immediately in bed.
“You okay?”
She clutches her stomach and shakes her head, stumbles to the bed, and sits heavily.
“Must’ve been something we ate last night,” she says. “I’ve been up for hours, queasy and nauseous.” She sighs and shakes her head. “Can’t go to school today. You should call around, see if anyone else is sick.”
I’m on my feet already, calling Sebastian.
“Tully?”
“Sebastian, it’s McKenna.”
“What is it?”
“She’s sick, thinks it could be food poisoning.”
McKenna’s mumbling something in the background about overreacting and no need for a doctor, but I ignore her.
“I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
I hang up the phone and point to the bed. “Lie down,” I say sternly. “I’ll have Tiernan notify the school you won’t be arriving.”
She moans, her hand over her face. “But today’s the day Mum’s coming to meet Mary.”
We’ve put it off long enough, and Mary’s getting impatient. Says she needs to return to the men of the north.
“You don’t worry about that, now. If I need to introduce them myself, I will, and we’ll be just fine, baby.”
Suddenly, she goes still. Too still.
“McKenna?”
She sits up in bed so fast she startles me. Her eyes are wide, her hands splayed out on either side of her as if to brace herself.