Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
“Meant it when I said you could stay for as long as you needed. My house is always yours, Raven.”
Relief billowed through her expression, and then she shrugged a teasing shoulder. “I guess you don’t have anyone else to dance with when you come home at night.”
“And since you’re the only one I want to be dancing with…”
Probably shouldn’t have said it, but there it was.
Raven stilled, held in the energy that lapped. “I learned from the best.”
“Nah, I was just teaching the best.”
We got stuck there for too long, and I finally cleared my throat and started stuffing my mouth with food to keep myself from uttering any more reckless things.
We both fell into the silence, chewing and looking out over the view, making a few comments here and there, getting through the rest of dinner virtually unscathed.
A fuckin’ miracle with the way she had me spun up so tight I was lucky I didn’t split.
Standing, I gathered our plates. “I’m gonna do the dishes really quick. You go relax.”
“But you made dinner,” she argued.
Dipping down, I leaned in close to her ear. The scent of moonflowers curled through my senses.
Intoxicating.
Mesmerizing.
My entire being off kilter.
“Yeah, and tonight I just wanna take care of you.”
And this was going to have to suffice considering I wasn’t doing it the way I really wanted to do.
By the time I finished cleaning the kitchen, Raven was stretched out on the couch. There was a show playing on the television, but the sound was set to low, and she was reading a book rather than watching it.
I wound around the island, hesitating for a beat, but then deciding if we were going to truly put what happened last night behind us, I was going to have to act normal. No tiptoeing my way around her.
So I did the same thing as I’d done most nights since she started staying here. I moved around the couch and lifted her legs by the ankles and set her feet on my lap as I sat down on the far end.
Raven had changed into the tiniest pair of cotton shorts I’d ever seen, this baby blue color, and a tight white tank top that barely contained her tits.
It seemed she had set out to cause me physical pain.
Did my best to control the tornado of lust that twisted through me.
“What are you reading?” I asked, no interest whatsoever in the show playing on the television when I could be watching her instead.
A flush of pink flared on her cheeks. God, was her mind back there, too? Was she thinking about it? Me watching her?
Her tongue stroked across her bottom lip. “Just this small-town romance.”
Ah. Figured she’d be reading something sweet.
“Is it any good?”
“Really good. Definite five-star.” A tinge of excitement filled her voice.
A slow smile crept to my mouth. “You love it? Escaping into your books?”
She’d always been a reader. When she’d been young, she’d constantly had her nose in these giant fantasy books, the thick paperbacks half her size. I knew she still read, but I hadn’t had a clue how much until I found her on this couch or tucked up in my bed with a book night after night.
“I do. I love getting to have experiences through other people’s eyes. Things that I might not ever experience for myself. It’s different than when you’re watching TV. It’s like you’re there.”
“I can see that.”
She was staring over at me, and it wasn’t until then that I realized I was caressing my thumb up and down her calf, touching her like it was natural. Like I had the right.
I swore, her breaths had gone raspy, her body trembling as a new tension curled through the air.
Uncertainty.
Surety.
Our gazes tangled in this quiet intensity that keened between us on a tether.
Awareness spinning.
My throat grew thick, and I wondered if we both fucking knew.
Wondered if in that moment, we both knew if we’d met under different realities, if our circumstances were all different, we’d be doing this night after night.
Forever.
Two of us together in a real, permanent way.
But I think Raven knew it was impossible, too, because she suddenly hopped off the couch like she was about to catch fire. “I need to use the restroom.”
She tucked a bookmark into the paperback and tossed it to the couch and padded on those bare feet to the powder room that was on the far side of the living area.
Black hair forever a messy pile on her head at this time of night, the girl a beacon and a light as she scampered across the floor.
She clicked the door shut behind her, and the second she was out of sight, I released the strained breath I’d been holding. Trying to rein this shit in because it was getting out of control.
Then I glanced at her book. The cover was illustrated, with what looked to be some kind of jacked-up lumberjack type of dude and a girl who looked like either a teacher or a sexy librarian on the front.