Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 146034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 730(@200wpm)___ 584(@250wpm)___ 487(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 730(@200wpm)___ 584(@250wpm)___ 487(@300wpm)
I knew he hadn’t found anything either, with the way the atmosphere dimmed and darkened when he returned, the way regret and fury were set deep in the lines of his face. “I didn’t find anything. Not the journal or any indication of someone trying to break in, either. Were the doors locked when you went out there?”
My nod was wary. “Both front and back. I checked.”
“Fuck,” he spat, looking to the ground for a beat before he was moving for me. A flash of lightning that struck in the room.
Energy powerful.
Potent.
I swayed beneath it, caught in his wave. He looped his arm around my waist, towering over me as his other hand held me by the back of the neck. “I won’t let anyone get to you, Savannah. I promise you.”
“What if someone has her? What if someone has hurt her? What if someone is trying to stop me from finding her?” Terror poured out. It was everything I’d held for years, amplified a million times once I’d received the journal.
Brown eyes flared, and that warm honey brimmed with fire. “We’ll find her. You and me and my team. We’re going to find her. I’ll hunt for her, Savannah, high and low until we know exactly what happened to her. Until this piece of your heart has been restored.”
Ezra gathered up my hand and placed it over the ravaging thunder at his chest. Over the spot where he’d marked himself with his wife. Where he’d believed his mistakes would forever forbid him to love again. His error too great.
“Because you are my heart.” His voice ground in emphasis.
“I can’t put you or the kids in danger, Ezra. I—”
His mouth crushed against mine, cutting off the words he knew were coming. His promises shutting down my fears.
I have you.
I love you.
I will fight for you.
“Don’t say it, Savannah. Don’t say you’re not worth it when you are worth everything. Don’t listen to the lies you’ve been fed. Listen to this truth.”
My palm was still flat against his heart, and Ezra had me bent back, keeping me from falling.
He was asking for my surrender. For me to fully give. To trust.
“Ezra,” I mumbled against his mouth.
I wanted it.
To completely give.
Because I believed in his love.
I believed in him.
It was the rest of this vicious life that had proved time and again that it couldn’t be trusted. The ground always falling away.
He deepened the kiss.
So powerful I gasped at the intensity of it.
At the intensity of him.
His tongue tangled with mine. Warm and wet, and heat streaked down my spine.
“I promise you, Savannah. I promise you everything I have to give.”
I kissed him back with as much as he was giving me, my nails raking over his shoulders and trying to find a place to sink in. “I love you.”
“So goddamn much,” he murmured back. He stepped back long enough to rip my sweater over my head. He tossed it aside and dove back in, kissing me mad as he backed me toward his bed.
Dizziness spun. My senses both heavy and light. “I love you,” I mumbled again.
I’d say it forever. For all of my days. Whatever that meant.
“You’re mine,” he growled against my mouth, and when he edged back to drag his shirt off, I knew this was going to be a claiming.
He needed me just as desperately as I needed him.
His skin glowed golden beneath the hazy lights that burned from the nightstands, his shoulders so powerful and wide.
His big body cast imposing shadows across the room.
This beast of a man who fought to consume me.
He dove back in, his kiss unrelenting, and without breaking it, he picked me up by the waist and set me on the edge of his bed. He wound himself between my legs and pushed them wide. We were both still wearing our jeans when he ground himself against my center.
Flames erupted.
“Ezra.”
He moaned at the contact. “Savannah, baby.”
Heat streaked, and the man’s hands rushed to find every inch they could touch. Racing my back. My sides. My breasts. Pushing against my trembling belly until I fell back against the bed.
He jerked the button of my jeans open, and I whimpered as he yanked them off. Cool air blew across my heated flesh. My panties and socks were next, and all of three seconds later, I was completely bare.
He dipped down and licked my core, his tongue stroking deep.
Pleasure sparked.
“What I’m going to do to you, Savannah.”
“I want it all. Everything you have to give.”
He stepped away and ridded himself of the rest of his clothes, and he pushed to his full height, towering over me, filling the room, filling my heart.
Trust and need and belief.
It pooled and poured.
“I need you,” I muttered.
My truth.
My truth.
His gaze flamed before he leaned down and ran his nose up the inside of my thigh.