Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“But you’re hiding things, Charleigh.”
I blinked at him. “And you need to allow me that.”
His thick throat bobbed, like what I was asking him was hard to swallow.
It felt like an hour passed before he nodded. “I get you don’t want to give me details, but that doesn’t mean I am not going to do everything I can to make sure you’re safe. Because that’s all I want for you. Want you to find this new life. For you to fuckin’ live and live right.”
My heart battered. A banging so loud at my chest that I could hear it echo in the room.
One second later, he was in front of me, both hands on my face. He stared down at me for the longest moment before he said, “And fuck, I want to do it with you.”
I gasped his name.
“I do. I fucking want to do it with you,” he said. Right before he angled down and took my mouth in a searing kiss.
My mind spun with his words while my body burned with his kiss.
A fist wound in my hair, and he tilted my head back as he licked into my mouth like he wanted to taste every inch of me.
He pulled me flush, and a big hand splayed out over my back as he plastered me to his front.
Intensity swelled, brimming at the connection.
Our tongues twining and begging.
He hiked me into his arms, and on instinct, I wrapped my legs around his waist.
He grunted at my mouth. “That’s right, gorgeous. This is right where you belong. Wrapped around me, either on the back of my bike or in my bed.”
Then he dove back in.
My mind bent at the power of his kiss.
Possessive, dominating, and greedy.
Heat seared down my middle, and my hands curled into the back of his head as I struggled to get closer.
Kissing me and kissing me, he carried me into my room.
“Where’s Nolan?” I somehow managed through the frenzy, and he edged back for one beat. “Otto’s picking him up. Told him I had something important I needed to take care of.”
Then he smirked, and God, my stomach tumbled with what I felt for this man.
“And what did you need to take care of?” I played into his hands. Exactly where I wanted to be.
“You, Little Runner, I needed to take care of you. Don’t think I can wait a minute longer to get inside this body.”
His kiss grew more urgent as he pressed me to the interior wall of my room. He let his massive hands wander.
Cupping my butt through the thin material of my scrubs and riding up my sides. He took fistfuls like he’d been tormented with the idea that he might not be able to touch me again.
“Nearly went out of my ever-lovin’ mind last night,” he rumbled. “Letting you walk out that door and not goin’ after you. Took every ounce of willpower I possessed. Think you should know I won’t be letting you go this time.”
“I’m terrified of how badly I don’t want you to.”
He edged back and brushed a lock of my hair behind my ear, stormy eyes flitting over my face. “We’re going to figure this out. You and me. But in the meantime, know you’re safe with me. I promise you.”
“I know.”
I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did.
I trusted it.
With my affirmation, he hoisted me back into his arms, and he plundered my mouth as he took the two steps to the end of my bed.
He dumped me in the middle of it.
I bounced on the mattress, and I couldn’t help the bit of joy that erupted from my throat. The spark of happiness that had lit.
River remained at the end of the bed, every bit the dark destroyer where he watched down over me. The cyclone in his gaze promised that Raven had been right.
He wasn’t ever going to look away.
Of their own accord, my hips bucked.
“Look at you, sweet little vixen. So needy.” He was all arrogance then, sex and hunger roiling from his flesh and pounding through the air.
He peeled his shirt over his head, and the oxygen raked from my lungs at him standing there. Rays of sunlight slanted in through the window and amplified the vicious beauty that he was.
Cast him in a spotlight.
His shoulders were obscenely wide, and the designs that covered his flesh jerked and twitched over his bulging muscles, arms and chest and abdomen.
“I never knew someone could make me feel this way.” My confession was breathy, riding on the motes that played across the room.
One side of his mouth hitched. “You don’t have the first clue the way I’m going to make you feel. The ways I’m going to have you.”
My tongue stroked out across my suddenly dried lips. “Show me.”
“Exactly what I plan to do. Again and again. For the rest of my fuckin’ days.”