Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
I quickly stood so I could grab the clothes myself but immediately regretted it. The world spun crazily. I managed to stay on my feet but by the time I came to my senses, Cass was sitting at the table. He’d put a T-shirt on, though it wasn’t the one he’d set aside for me. His intense stare had butterflies dancing in my stomach and goose bumps dotting my forearms and the back of my neck.
I’d been in fight-or-flight mode from the moment I’d realized where I was and who I was with. I’d chosen to fight. Well, with words anyway. Now I was choosing flight. The state of my hardening cock was getting harder to conceal. Maybe if I went straight from wherever the hell I was to Tank’s, I could forget everything about today.
The idea of some guy shoving his dick into me made me physically ill, but not for the right reason. The true reason I didn’t want a stranger’s dick anywhere near me was sitting not five feet from me. I didn’t want some guy. I wanted Cass. My body didn’t care about what he’d done. All it knew was the taste of raw, unbridled need. It was painful and humiliating to finally understand for the first time what the force of true attraction really was.
I climbed to my feet more slowly this time around and took several steps forward so I could grab the shirt off the pile of clothes on the table. I had to keep my eyes on the prize because if I looked at Cass, I’d lose the ability to focus on anything but him. I managed to reach the table without looking at him even once but the second I reached my arm out, hard fingers wrapped around my wrist and held on with a steely grip.
“Let go,” I snapped as I yanked my arm back, but there was no escaping the hold he had on me. I was strong but I wasn’t Cass strong.
I could feel Cass’s eyes boring a tunnel through me.
“Is that it, JJ?” he asked carefully as he pulled me forward a few inches.
I opened my mouth to once again order him to release me, but before I could even get a word out, he was on his feet and walking me backwards until my back hit the outdated wallpaper behind me. He grabbed both my wrists and pinned my arms next to my head. I could have fought harder than I did, but I was too busy raging an internal war between my brain and my body.
“Has no one else gotten a taste of you?” he asked, his voice smooth and knowing.
I could feel tears stinging the backs of my eyes as shame, humiliation, and desire collided.
“I’ve been fucked by more guys than I can count,” I spat in a last-ditch effort to save myself. I swore I saw something flare to life in Cass’s stunningly blue eyes but then it was gone.
He dropped his head until his lips were nearly brushing mine. I felt like I was going to explode then and there.
“That’s not what I asked,” Cass pointed out. “Am I the first guy you’ve kissed? The first person?” His voice sounded growly and possessive. My dick wept with joy. God, if he shifted his hips just a little, he’d know a kiss wasn’t all I wanted… needed.
My resistance began to shred like threads of a rope that was stretched to its limit.
A really thin, weak rope.
“Cass,” I whispered in desperation.
But what was I more desperate for? For him to let me go or for him not to?
“Answer me,” Cass demanded.
I could feel the electricity firing inside of me but this time it wasn’t along the track the bullet had taken. No, that part of me was just fine. No blinding light, no stabbing pain.
“JJ—”
“Yes,” I croaked. “Damn you, Cass. Yes! Okay? Yes, you’re the first—”
His mouth was on mine before I could complete my rant. A couple of the tears I’d been struggling to hold back slipped down my cheek as one and only one emotion swept through my entire body.
Joy.
Pure, undeniable, unforgivable joy.
CHAPTER 9
Cass
Ishouldn’t have done it. I knew that. I’d already crossed a line by lying to JJ about the way he’d kissed me back on that canyon road. I could only excuse that behavior as being a result of the frustration of his whiplash reactions to my presence.
But what I was doing now, it was so much more than a lie. I was taking advantage of the opening JJ had unwittingly given me as an excuse to taste him again. To feel his body against mine.
Granted, I had kissed him before the one we’d shared on that dry, dusty road high above the city.
Our real first kiss had been the night before he’d gotten shot. We’d been sitting in my car talking about everything and nothing. I had no idea which of us had made the first move, but I’d immediately known JJ’s experience with kissing had been limited at best. I hadn’t been complaining, though. I’d kissed and been kissed by plenty of guys, and I’d fucked even more, but nothing had prepared me for JJ.