Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
I need her.
The realization doesn’t rock my world. It spins it right round and settles it firmly on its axis where it belonged.
“I was so worried,” she whispers.
“It’s okay, baby. I’m here. I’m here now.”
We hug a long time, and while I’m rock hard and aching against her, I can’t put her down to kiss her. I need her to know how much I need her, and until she does, I can’t let her go.
Finally, she raises her head. Her sweet smile is more potent than a punch. “I cooked for you.”
I let her wriggle out of my arms, gritting my teeth against the new surge of arousal. She takes my hand and tugs me to the chair. The kitchen smells lemony fresh and the counters almost sparkle. She waited for me. She cooked. She cleaned.
“Jordy.” I tug her back and claim her mouth. I feast, all that sweetness dissolving on my tongue like sugar, but when I grab her hips and set her against my erection, she laughs and tuts. “Not now.”
“Yes, now,” I growl.
“No.” She slips away. Damn wriggly fox. I go after her and she races around the table. If it weren’t full of food she made, I’d flip the furniture out of the way, drag her to the ground and claim her. She’s mine. There’s no need to wait any longer.
“You need to eat.”
“I will eat. You.”
Smiling and blushing, she shakes her finger. “No. You need real food. You were gone a long time. I know how much it took out of you.”
I start to growl and she puts her hands on her hips. “One plate. At least.”
“I want you now.”
“You’ll get me,” she soothes. “But first, I need to know you’re okay.” She pulls out my chair. “Sit.”
I hide a grin. “You giving orders now?”
“Yes.” She blushes as she says it and ducks her head. Well, hell, now I can’t refuse her.
“All right, Kit. One plate.”
“And then we talk,” she announces and starts uncovering dishes.
“That sounds ominous,” I mutter, but don’t push it. Now that she’s pulled the cover off the crock pot, I want food.
“Looks good, baby.”
“It’s cochinita pibil,” she says. “Slow cooked pork. My recipe.”
I grab her ass as she serves it up. She laughs and dances away when my hand strays between her legs. She didn’t say anything about me not feeling her up. I wait until she’s out of reach, sitting across the table from me, to pick up my fork. One bite and I’m plowing through the meal.
“Damn, Kit, this is good.”
She says nothing, but beams.
“You gonna eat?”
“I already did.” She puts her elbows on the table, resting her face against her folded hands. Almost like she’s praying, but her eyes are on me. She doesn’t speak. Her hands hide her expression.
As soon as my plate is clean, I reach for her. I could eat more, but first I need a bite of her. “Come here.”
She obeys, and doesn’t protest when I guide her to sit on my lap.
“Grizz—” she starts and I kiss her, drinking more of her sweetness. My fingers fist in her hair, angling her face the way I want it. For a long time she allows it, but then jerks back.
“Grizz, we need to talk.”
I nibble a little more at her lips. “Later,” I murmur.
A few more kisses and she shakes her head, rubbing her face against my stubble. “Now.”
I sit back with a sigh. Her face is so serious it turns the food in my stomach to concrete.
She strokes my hair as if soothing me. Cute little fox. “You were gone a long time.”
I almost close my eyes at the worry in her voice. “Is that why you cooked for me, Kit? Get me softened up so you could give me the third degree?”
She just looks at me.
I sigh. “Look, I—”
“You didn’t come back because you couldn’t. You passed out again, like after the last fight. Right?”
Fuck. I don’t want to lie to her. I nod.
She blinks and says to herself, “It has something to do with how you can blur.”
Alarms go off in my head. “Kit, I can’t tell you. It’s not safe.”
“It’s the flask, isn’t it? It contains something that helps you fight faster.”
I weigh the truth against the cost. “Yeah.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell you that.” Frangelico won’t want any word of this spreading. If I tell her the final secret, her life will be in danger.
Silence stretches like a chasm between us.
Her head bows and she mutters something.
“What’s that?” I raise her chin.
She meets my eyes unflinchingly. “I said, ‘it’s killing you’.”
I open my mouth but my protest dies under her direct stare. I can’t look at her, the woman I love, and lie.
And I love Jordy. I don’t know when I started but I know I’ll never stop.
So when she takes my hand and leads me to the bathroom, I follow. Big bad bear meek and mild around her. She tugs off my shirt and I stifle a snarl. Fates, that hurts.