Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
“It was a promise.” He lifted a hand and skimmed the backs of his fingers down my cheek slowly. I leaned into the touch. “For a time when you aren’t looking to hide from your feelings with sex.”
My heart flipped. He was getting all noble on me, and that wasn’t something I could handle at the moment. “I’m taking a page out of your book and breaking the rules. You had the last five minutes. These are mine.” I retreated two steps.
“Allie . . .” His jaw ticked.
“So if you want me, I’d take the offer. Because this is the only time I’m making it.” I reached under my arm, undid the hook and eye closure with a snap of my fingers, then dragged the zipper down my side. “You’re the decisive one, so choose. Now, or never.”
“I’d like to do the right thing here.” He watched the progress of my fingers like he hadn’t eaten in months and I was about to take the silver top off a buffet.
The look alone was enough to jump-start my pulse.
“The right thing is overrated.” I reached my waist and the dress parted along my ribs.
“I want you,” he growled.
“I think we’ve established that.” I slipped one spaghetti strap off my shoulder.
He shook his head. “I want all of you. No masks. No walls. No more pretending what’s between us is fake when we both know it’s excruciating, and terrifying, and amazingly real. I want more than five minutes.”
Panic shot into my blood like ice, but it quickly melted in the overwhelming heat coursing through me. “That’s not going to happen.” I’d never be foolish enough to let him in all the way again, not when he had a track record of leaving.
“It is.” The certainty in his gaze didn’t stop me from lifting my hand to my other shoulder. “And I wish I was above using sex as a way to get you, to keep you. But I’m not.”
“Don’t worry, you can’t.” I tugged the other strap over the curve of my shoulder and let it fall to rest against my arm, relishing how he tracked the movement. “I won’t let you. I told you I don’t do messy.” Sex wasn’t emotional for me, and he wasn’t going to change that.
Hudson shook his head slowly. “It’s not a debate. It’s a disclaimer. Only truth between us, remember?” Every line of his body tensed. “You’re using this as a way to run, and I’m saying I’ll use it to keep you.”
I arched a brow. “What are you going to do, Hudson? Fuck me so well that I never want to leave your bed? That I’ll be willing to forget everything in our past because you’re that damn good at dishing out orgasms?” Never going to happen. My vibrator dished out orgasms and I had no problem replacing it every year.
“Yes.” His gaze dropped to my neckline and I let the dress slip an inch. He bit back a groan, and my mouth curved slightly. I had him. We both knew it.
“Then by all means, give it your best shot.” I lifted my chin.
He surged toward me and I braced for impact.
It didn’t disappoint.
His mouth collided with mine in the same instant his hand reached for my face and the other splayed across my back, pulling me against him.
Yes. Every cell in my body screamed the word as my focus, my very existence, narrowed to the feel of his lips on mine.
He pressed down on my chin with his thumb, and my mouth opened, immediately invaded by the skillful slide of his tongue. It was just as hot and consuming as the first time had been, and for a split second, I worried he might just be able to do what he threatened, and addict me.
That thought scattered when his hand slid down my throat, across the swell of my breast and along the skin my zipper had bared. His touch woke every nerve, raising goose bumps in its wake. He deepened the kiss as he grabbed my ass with both hands, then adjusted his hold to my hips and lifted.
I wound my arms around his neck, and the straps of my dress pulled tight across my arms as I kissed him back with everything I had, licking into his mouth to stake my own claim. My ass landed on the cold granite of the island, and I didn’t so much as flinch at the temperature as he kissed me again and again. He drowned out the noise of the outside world by becoming the center of mine. There was only his mouth, his tongue, his hands, and the all-consuming need burning between us.
Heat pooled between my thighs as he moved his hands across them, one of them grazing my skin through the slit in my dress. Then he pushed them apart to make room for his hips, filling the space and then some, spreading my legs wider to accommodate him.