Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
She shrugs, mocking me. “Who knows?”
I don’t like it. I don’t like her gambling attitude toward life. “Why did you do it? Why did you go so far?” I add in a quieter tone, “It wasn’t the first time.”
She clenches her hands at her sides. “I’m not a fucking quitter.”
“No?” I tilt my head. “Then explain it to me.”
“I don’t owe you any explanations,” she bites out.
That’s it. I’ve had it. I lunge, grabbing her arm before she can escape. “Don’t forget, cara, your life belongs to me. I have every right to demand an explanation.”
Angry tears simmer in her eyes. “I regret the day I laid eyes on you.”
“You don’t have to,” I say, rubbing my thumb in a soothing gesture over the soft skin of her wrist. “There was a time you liked me. With a little effort, we can go back to that.”
“I never liked you,” she utters with a sneer. “How could I? I didn’t even know you. The person you pretended to be wasn’t real.”
“One day, you’ll understand.” Now isn’t the moment to come clean about her father’s broken promise.
“Oh, I understand.” She yanks on my hold. “Perfectly.”
“I can be that man for you again.” I drag her closer, making our bodies collide. “All you have to do is ask me.”
Her brown eyes narrow, and her lips thin. Contempt shows in every line of her features. “Hell will freeze over before I ask you for anything.” She lifts her chin, holding my gaze with false bravado as she commands in a calm, controlled voice, “Now let me go.”
I don’t miss the effort it takes her to force that control or to pretend not to be scared. Her whole body is shaking with the effort. Uncertainty flickers behind the anger shimmering in her eyes. I take notice of other things too, of how her body fits against mine and how hard her nipples are from the cold.
Pushing her backward, I follow her down and catch her body to break her fall before she hits the sand. I’m on top of her in a wink, spreading out over the length of her, and nothing has ever felt so right. Finally, I can warm her. What I really want to do is possess her.
She fights me, slamming her fists into my ribs and clamping her teeth onto my shoulder. I don’t stop her. I let her use me as the punching bag she needs to get this poison out of her system. I’m not restraining her. If she wants to, she can flip us over and punch me in the face, but she doesn’t. Not that she’s holding back. No, she tries to inflict damage to the best of her ability.
I let her carry on until she tires. When she sags onto the sand with a defeated sob, I catch her wrists and pin them above her head. The look in her eyes changes. It turns from uncontrolled fury to uncontrolled carnality. I can’t tear my gaze away from the way she watches me like a female praying mantis about to mate a male before making a meal out of him.
What passes between us is simple physics. Energy can’t be destroyed. It can only be transformed. All that anger fueling her now doesn’t vanish. It simply changes into a different sentiment. I can take away her fury as little as I can change the law of energy. I can, however, offer her an escape, if only for a short while. She was my first, and she’ll be my last. What we are isn’t pretty, but we’re meant to be together.
Dipping my head, I hold her gaze as I press my mouth on hers. She tastes cold and salty and wild. She bites. I let her. When I part her lips with mine, she doesn’t resist. She meets the strokes of my tongue, getting tangled in my body and in our kiss. She’s using me like I’m using her, groping blindly for a remedy to ease the pain. In our case, the medicine is lust.
I let go of her wrists, wanting her to make this choice. She does. She fists her hands in my hair and holds on. For better or worse. For whatever we can get. Even if the relief lasts for a fleeting moment. I’d rather she finds it here in a cave with me than on the bottom of the ocean.
My movements are jerky when I pull the straps of her swimsuit over her shoulders to expose her small, firm breasts. She pants with feverish breaths as I close my lips around a nipple and suck the icy, hard tip into the warmth of my mouth. She tastes good on my tongue. I take her deeper, unable to get enough. Then the other breast. The iciness of her skin melts underneath me. Heat burns between us, but I know from experience that nowhere does it burn hotter than between her thighs.