Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
I swallowed hard. “How about the rest of your life? All the amazing things you’re going to do and be? Maybe you can’t see them yet, but I can.”
He turned around and looked at me. Took my face in his hands. “No one has ever seen me the way you do.”
I smiled. “Maybe no one ever bothered to look beyond the surface—I mean, you’re Tyler Shaw. The surface is pretty nice to look at.”
He kissed me hard then, and deep, his tongue penetrating my lips, his hands sliding into my hair. The kiss grew hotter as he moved me backward toward the bed, shoving his pants down, and lifting me onto the sheets.
“God, April,” he whispered as his mouth traveled down my throat and his hands roamed over my skin. “I want you so much. I want you so much it scares me.”
“Why?” I arched beneath his lips and tongue and teeth and palms and fingers as they moved over my body. I put my hands in his hair.
“Because I keep imagining this life with you, this life full of things I’ve never wanted before.”
“What kinds of things?” As much as I loved his dirty mouth, his sweet words were just as thrilling, and I wanted to hear them all.
“I want to share a bed with you every night. And wake up to you every morning. I want to make breakfast for you, see you in the stands at Central High baseball games, reach all the stuff in the high cupboards in the kitchen. I want to be the one you come home to.”
I smiled. “Don’t be scared. I want all those things too.”
“But what if I fuck it up?” He kissed his way up the center of my chest and braced himself above me. “What if I’m not good at it? What if I don’t deserve it?”
“Tyler.” I took his face in my hands. “You deserve it. Do you hear me? You deserve to be loved the way I’m going to love you.”
Then his mouth was crushing mine and we were pressed chest to chest, rolling sideways with our arms and legs tangled as we tried to get under each other’s skin. I reached low between us, sheathing his cock with my hand, desperate to feel him deep inside me, to let him take control, to show him I trusted him—and that he was safe with me.
He left my side only for the twenty seconds it took to put a condom on, and then he was back, easing into my body. When he was buried deep, he stopped and looked down at me. “I don’t know what the second act of my life is going to look like, but I know you’re the best part of it.”
My heart, already beating hard, threatened to burst right out of my chest. “Really?”
“Yes.”
Tell me again, I wanted to say, even as his mouth possessed mine once more and he began rocking into me with deep, steady strokes. Let me hear those words again, because they meant I didn’t have to be alone anymore. They meant the risk was worth it.
They meant that finally I could say to myself . . . This is what it feels like to fall in love.
The following morning, Tyler got up early. Like, it-was-still-dark-outside early.
“You okay?” I asked as he pulled on sweats. I’d fallen asleep right after our round two in the middle of the night, so I had no idea if he’d been up all night or managed to get some rest.
“Yeah. I’m just gonna go down and get a workout in.”
I bit my lip. “Did you sleep?”
“I slept some.”
“Okay. I think I’ll sleep in a little more. I have to be at work late tonight for a wedding.”
He came over and kissed my forehead. “Sleep as long as you want. I like you in my bed.”
Wiggling my toes, I snuggled down deeper into the covers, and I didn’t wake up until I heard the door open and shut again. “Hey,” I said, stretching. “How was your workout?”
“It was okay. A little sluggish.”
“I bet.” I patted the spot next to me. “Why don’t you come back to bed?”
He peeled off his shirt. “Because I am a sweaty fucking mess. I need a shower before I even get near you.”
The sight of his bare chest and arms made my heart beat faster and my core muscles clench. “Okay, but hurry. Your muscles are doing things to my insides.”
I caught a glimpse of his old grin as he walked naked to the bathroom, and I had to stop myself from following him in there. My phone was dead, so to distract myself, I grabbed the remote and turned on the television, flipping through channels and listening to the shower run. I watched about five minutes of one morning show and ten minutes of another, and I’d just switched to a local news channel when I heard Tyler’s name.