Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
It was pouring rain, so I figured the neighborly thing to do would be to lend a hand.
I nearly dropped to my knees when I realized who she was.
Hailey Wagner.
It’s been six years since I’ve seen her, and she’s always been the one person on earth who is off-limits.
My past sins I’ve kept like an ugly secret made sure of that.
Too bad this single mom with soulful eyes still makes my pulse speed the way it did back then, and I soon find our chemistry is just as strong.
When I find her ex threatening her, I insist on staying with Hailey and her little girl until I’m sure they’re safe.
I thought I could handle being under her roof. Only the tension between us strains, and with one forbidden kiss, all restraint is lost. We collide in a lightning bolt of greed, the two of us locked behind her door night after night.
Falling so hard I know there will be no coming back from it.
But being with Hailey exposes the past I’ve been trying to hide, and I’ll do anything to protect her from it. Because if I don’t? We’re both going to pay the consequences…
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
My eyes devoured the outline of his perfect shape.
His big body roiled in sharp restraint and caused a constant wave of strength that battered against me.
He held onto the steering wheel like it might be the one thing that kept him contained.
The only thing grounding him when the world had floated away from us.
Each thirsting for what we knew better than to chase, but right then, after everything that had happened tonight, all rationale ceased to exist.
“You need to stop looking at me like that,” he warned in a rough, low voice.
“I don’t think I can stop.” There I went—a fool who was begging for it.
Heartbreak.
Every muscle in his body flexed, a bristle of repression and a rush of greed. “I’m not sure I can give you what you need.”
“You told me last night you knew exactly what I needed.”
His tongue stroked out over his lips, and that energy swelled.
Need rose up from the depths to consume.
My thighs pressed together, and his gaze dropped to the action. I squirmed beneath the weight. Beneath the potency that lured me in his direction.
“That’s right. You need to come.” His words were harsh. A rough scrape of seduction.
“Just once. Tonight.”
I thought I could handle it, but I should have known my love for him would grow and he’d become my world.
And him loving me?
It was going to cost everything.
ONE
CODY
It was just before six when I took the left into my neighborhood. Rain was pouring down, a deluge from the sky. It was a summer storm that had built for the better part of the afternoon, the clouds gathering high and thick, before it’d finally unleashed its fury just as the sun had begun its descent toward the horizon.
I fucking loved storms.
Loved the energy.
Loved the blinding flash of lightning before the crack of thunder followed.
Loved the way the earth smelled afterward, like it was promising something brand new.
Though I personally preferred watching it with my boots kicked up on the railing of my porch while I tossed back a couple beers rather than to be standing in the middle of it.
So, I was grumbling out a disbelieving, “Shit,” when my headlights cut across the U-Haul that sat in the driveway of the house next to mine.
It was parked facing out, and it wouldn’t have caused such a stir except for the fact I caught sight of a woman running out of the house and down the sidewalk before she disappeared into the back of the U-Haul.
Racing through the driving rain with her head angled toward the ground like it offered her any hope of not getting drenched.
The place had been empty and posted for rent for the last month, and I’d heard it on good word from the neighborhood gossip that it’d been rented. Never once in the last week had Millie failed to come around to speculate about who might be moving in.
Poor old lady was always sure it was bound to be a serial killer.
It appeared I was about to find out, and not under the best of circumstances.
But hell, it seemed a prick move to pull into my garage and act like I hadn’t noticed someone was trying to move their shit in during a storm, which in my humble opinion was a bit on the reckless side.
Like it was offering proof, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky before a crack of thunder followed, and I was huffing again as I pulled into my garage, killed the engine, and climbed out.
I hesitated for only a second before I ducked out into the pelting rain.
A torrent pounding from above.
In an instant, my hair and tee were soaked, the pummeling only getting worse and spreading to my jeans as I jogged across the lawn that separated the two houses.
I rounded to the back of the U-Haul to the trailer and found the ramp was extended out and the rolling door was open. The minimal light that still remained cast a faint glow into the trailer.
Boxes were stacked on furniture, and the woman I’d seen come darting out had her back to me, frantically rifling through the boxes.
She wore shorts and a crop top as she bent over to hunt for whatever she was searching for. The action emphasized thick, lush thighs and the most delicious ass I’d ever seen.
My dick kicked, and my stomach gripped in a fit of lust.
Fuck me.
My new neighbor was perfection.
It was no secret that I loved women. Loved to touch and tease and fuck. But this smack of greed hit me like nothing I’d ever experienced.
I sucked the reaction down because I didn’t know a single thing about this woman.
Hell, she could be married for all I knew, and ogling someone else’s wife was not my thing. Though if the douche was sitting inside as she was out here in the rain? He and I were not going to be friends.