Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
With this new resolve, I gather up the roses at my feet and make my way backstage, accepting compliments as I go.
Once I’m in my dressing room, I feel I can finally breathe. I close the door, place the roses on the dresser, and reach behind me to try and unzip my gown. I’ve just got my fingernails on the pull when suddenly the door swings open.
For a moment I think it’s Marco, being pushy as always, but instead it’s Callahan who stands in the doorway. He’s dressed in a spiffy black suit, his hair perfectly combed, but there’s a wildness in his eyes that can’t be contained and he’s breathing hard, like he just ran here.
“Callahan?” I say, my nerves dancing. “What are you doing here?”
He comes inside, slamming the door shut behind him, his head low and his blue gaze locked on mine like a predator.
“Why are you with him?” he says in a low, strained voice.
I swallow hard, unsure what’s happening. “With Marco?”
“Leave him, now,” he says, grinding out the words as he comes over to me, grabbing both my arms with bruising strength. “Leave him for me.”
His words are both demanding and desperate and I would be lying if they didn’t make my heart skip several beats. Still, I look him over carefully, trying to figure him out. Is he drunk? I’ve never seen him so uncomposed before.
“What’s gotten into you?” I ask.
He gives me a caustic laugh, the kind that borders on insane. “That’s the thing,” he says with a shake of his head. “That’s the thing, kitten. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I don’t even know who I am anymore. I just know that you don’t belong with a thug like that.”
“And so I belong with you?”
“Yeah. You belong with me. All of you.”
Heart, body, and soul…
But there’s a part of me that still wants to rebel, that doesn’t like being told what to do. “It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just demand me.”
“I’m not demanding,” he growls. “I’m taking.”
My heart is now hammering against my ribs, heat pooling between my thighs. “You can’t just take me.”
“You were offering it up the other day.”
“And maybe I had a change of heart. Maybe I realized fucking you would be a mistake,” I say, though my words sound harsher than I meant.
“And fucking him isn’t?”
I narrow my eyes at him, anger and desire swirling together until I’m burning up all over.
“You know why I’m with Marco? He’s good in bed and has a big dick. That answer satisfy you? Did you think, maybe hope, I was more complicated than that? Sorry to disappoint you, sorry that—”
Before I can finish my sentence, I’m cut off by his lips. He closes the gap between us and grabs me by the back of the head, strong fingers sliding into my hair, his mouth fierce and demanding. It’s our first kiss and it takes my breath away like a punch to the gut. I’m surging with heat and need as his tongue sweeps against mine, my knees growing weak as he devours.
Then he grabs my hand, presses it against the rock-hard bulge in his pants, and growls, “Is he bigger than this?”
Goodness.
Callahan is enormous.
He reads the desire on my face, the corner of his mouth twisting up into a wanton smirk before he kisses me again, rougher this time, a threat of potential violence. We’re making out in a building frenzy, his hands everywhere, his mouth relentless.
It’s everything I’ve needed.
He shoves me back a few steps, and I’m stumbling until I’m pushed against the wall, pinning me there as he kisses down my neck. My strapless dress is no match for him—he pulls it down, freeing my breasts, all while I’m weakly pushing against him in some futile show of resistance.
But my body betrays me. It always does. I moan as his lips find my nipple, sucking hard into his mouth, biting down until I cry out. It hurts but it hurts so good and god, do I want more. More of him, more of everything.
My hands slip under his jacket, desperate to undress him. He shrugs it off with one quick motion, sending it flying across the room and knocking over a vase of old flowers on the table.
“Callahan—” I gasp but he’s devouring me again, lifting me up by my thighs until I’m wrapped around him tight.
“Tell me you don’t want this,” he says into my skin between bites.
I can’t. I’m writhing against him, lost in a frenzy of lust that burns hotter than anything I’ve ever known.
“What’s the use in lying?” I manage to pant out with what little breath I have left.
He grins at me wickedly before his mouth closes over my nipple again and I let out a sharp cry, fingers digging into his hair and pulling hard.