Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“It sounds beautiful.” It really did.
“I wish I had some pictures to show you,” she said. “I had a bunch on my old phone from hikes I took out there.”
“Maybe you’ll show me in person one day.” Whoa. Where had that come from? When had I started making plans with people? She blinked up at me but gave me a quick, shy smile before looking away from me. We continued walking in silence for another little while, taking in nature and each other as we went, the path continuing to wind through the trees and get more difficult as we went on.
“I was wondering, what’s the occasion?” she said, keeping pace with me easily as we went. “I thought that you were gung-ho for keeping me confined to the cabin.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Contrary to what you might believe, I don’t actually get all that much out of having you there all the time. It messes with my concentration.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, rolling her own eyes in turn, “that my imprisonment in your home is messing up your workflow.”
I chuckled at her phrasing, but only because she barely hid her own smile. “Thank you, but that’s actually not the thing that I find most distracting.”
We didn’t stop walking, but I was suddenly far more aware of her than I had been even a second ago. Her smell seemed to weave with the scents of the world around us in an enthralling mix, and I’d been craving the feeling of her body on top of mine since that night a few weeks before when we’d thrown caution out the window and I’d ripped down every barrier I’d put up without a second thought for the sake of that gorgeous face and mesmerizing ass.
Our eyes met as we continued up the hill, and the sunlight seemed to bounce off her clear blue eyes, turning them the color of a lake. She raised her eyebrow and tilted up the side of her mouth, and I knew immediately that I was in trouble. “Oh yeah? So, what’s been distracting you?”
I snorted, gesturing vaguely to her. “You. Just… everything about you is a distraction to me.”
She shook her head, her breathing picking up a little bit—so slightly I might’ve imagined it—as the incline got sharper. “Be specific.”
“Do I have to list them?”
“Of course. I go out of my way not to bug you, so I’d like to know exactly how I’ve been distracting to you. I’d hate to be guilty of keeping you from getting your work done.”
I chuckled, eyeing her as deliberately as I could, almost making it so that my gaze dragged over her with an almost physical touch. I knew immediately that the flush on her delicate cheeks was from the look I’d given her. She’d barely broken a sweat up till now, despite the fact that she’d kept up with my pace. She really must’ve been an avid hiker back in LA. Despite our difference in height, she walked with me. It wasn’t too much of a stretch, then, to think that I was the reason for her change in coloring. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
She came around in front of me so that she was blocking my path, looking up at me with that particular look I’d started to think of as her hidden grin. “Am I distracting you right now?”
I didn’t bother to hide the way my own breath seemed to tighten at the sight of her, when her crystal-blue eyes lit on me with featherlight touches the way prism rainbows seemed to land on my furniture from the dew that formed on the windows in the mornings.
“You have no idea,” I said, my voice hoarse.
She nodded, moving away from me and up the path, pulling her long hair out of the bun and shaking it out around her shoulders. The sun bounced off it, making it glow a fiery red. She gathered it back into her hands on top of her head, and as she stood up again, I knew I’d had enough.
I came up behind her, pulling her into me so she was pressed up against me. “Don’t put it up,” I said against her neck, leaning down to press my mouth to the soft skin under her ear that I’d learned, over the course of our nights together, was exactly the spot that made her melt.
She gave a breathy sound, her hands falling down to settle on my hands where they spread out over her flat stomach, and her head rolled back onto my shoulder. I didn’t bother to look into her eyes as I leaned over her and kissed her.
I hadn’t been planning to initiate anything, but as soon as I’d seen the beautiful sharp curves of her neck and the way that she meant to drive me insane, I knew I needed to return the favor.