Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“I needed you, and you weren’t there.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“I’ve missed you.”
“I know,” I rumbled. “I’ve missed you, too.”
Her heart was beating so hard that I could see the pulse at her neck moving with each beat of her heart.
“Why?” her voice cracked. “Why are you back now?” She viciously wiped away a tear. “You’re never going to leave me again. I won’t let you.”
I didn’t say, ‘you wouldn’t be able to stop me’ like I wanted to. I only stayed silent, letting her know with no words that she didn’t have that option. If I felt I had to leave again, I would.
If it was her safety or her happiness, I’d choose her safety every single time.
“I love you so much,” she sniffled. “But I still hate you. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive you.”
Then she was in my arms. For the first time in six years, five months, one hour, and thirteen minutes.
My hands were shaking. My knees were weak, and I couldn’t get my fingers to loosen the grip they had on the hair that I’d fisted in both hands as I locked her in tight to my body with my arms.
“I missed you.”
I buried my face into her neck.
“I’ve cried so many tears. Prayed so many prayers.”
My voice wouldn’t work. I couldn’t tell her the thousand things I’ve wanted to tell her for what felt like forever. I couldn’t tell her I was sorry, and that I was a complete and utter asshole. I couldn’t tell her why this was a bad idea. I couldn’t do a goddamn thing but hold her, and breathe her in.
“Sienna,” she said on a sob.
I shook my head.
“Not yet, honey,” I said roughly. “Not yet.”
She seemed to grasp that there was something going on that was keeping me from her.
She didn’t question why I’d stayed away.
She knew, just as well as I did, the love we had for each other. There was nothing that would take that away. I wouldn’t have stayed away unless I had a damn good reason, and she knew that it wasn’t something small. It was huge.
It was big enough that I had to leave her. Had to see her cry every night while she thought that I was gone from this Earth.
Then her lips were on mine.
Her tongue swept in, and my body’s battle with staying upright lost its fight.
I dropped down to my knees, then went further, laying Mina’s tiny body down onto the dusty floor.
One hand went to the side of her face, while the other went to the floor beside her head.
I didn’t even notice the dust and dirt on the floor. Didn’t care one single bit that we would both be covered in it before we were done.
Her lips were on mine.
My tongue inside her mouth.
“I need.”
Those words were pulled from my throat, a guttural harsh tone, and I couldn’t fucking breathe.
Couldn’t fucking think.
All I could do was feel.
Remember.
Taste.
She fisted my shirt, and I took it for the demand that it was and shrugged out of it.
My cock was throbbing, pulsing with heat and need. Feeling her so close, knowing that what I’d wanted for so long was nearly mine for the taking…that was a heady feeling.
I wanted to rush. I wanted to go so slow that I could savor every single second.
I wanted to devour her.
But then her hands touched the bare skin of my chest, and my breath hitched.
“I should’ve demanded to see your body.” Her hands ran over the rough ridges of damaged skin on my chest. “I wanted to…but everyone convinced me that I didn’t need to see that.”
She didn’t.
I didn’t even want her to see the aftermath now.
“You were so hurt,” she whispered. “Oh, God. Tun. God.”
Tears continued to slip out of the corner of her eyes, and she couldn’t say anything without her voice wobbling.
But she was doing better than me. I couldn’t even fucking speak.
The fact that she was here, underneath me, was so surreal that I couldn’t make my brain work.
“You needed me, and I wasn’t there,” she whispered brokenly.
I brought my hand up to her face.
“You needed me, and I wasn’t there,” I countered back. “I watched you cry into that stupid cat’s fur every night, wishing that it was me there instead of her. Wishing that I had something to offer you that wouldn’t kill you if I did.”
Her eyes closed, and when she opened them again, she was still crying.
Her eyes, so freakin’ bright right now that I never wanted to look away, pulled me right in.
And then, there was nothing but us.
Nothing but the way she felt. Smelled. Sounded.
She caught the change, and our mouths met in a tangle of tongues and teeth.
I bit down lightly on her lip causing her to hiss in a sharp breath.