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)
In more ways than one.
Yes, I’d finally shut my mouth when JJ had begun rewarding my silence with bone-melting kisses, but that hadn’t been all of it. I’d given up the internal battle that had raged inside me. The one that tried to deny that my feelings for JJ had lessened in any way.
Not even when I’d been locked away in a place where I’d conveniently been written out of people’s lives. If anything, he was the reason I’d kept my sanity in that soul-sucking place. I might have left that police station with every intention of seeking revenge on the man I’d been so certain had betrayed me, but JJ had changed the game on me without even trying.
The brutal truth was that there’d never been a game. I hadn’t pursued JJ after my release because his brother had asked me to. I hadn’t done it to try and prove my innocence.
I’d done it because I’d needed to do it.
I’d needed to see him so I could prove to myself that he hadn’t been taken from me forever.
I’d needed to follow him because I’d needed him.
When the storm raging inside of me had been at its darkest in that cell, my JJ had been there. The one who’d let me see a side of himself that no one else had: his vulnerability, his fear of disappointing the people in his life, the resentment he’d carried for so long because he’d never been able to be his true self to his family and friends.
That JJ had helped me keep my head above water day after endless day.
Although he and I had only met up a few times before he’d been shot, I’d known from the first time he’d smiled at me that I was a goner. I hadn’t been a big believer in all that love at first sight nonsense or that there was some stranger walking the earth who was supposedly my soulmate, but JJ had been the reason I’d changed the way I’d viewed a lot of things before a bullet had torn our lives apart.
There was no use in trying to deny it anymore.
I was in love with JJ. Even when I’d been at my lowest, I’d loved him. During all the times my fist had slammed into a jaw or gut as my fellow inmates had tried to take my life, I’d let myself believe my rage had stemmed from the sting of his betrayal. Deep down, though, I’d been fighting for my life because I’d believed that someday I’d see JJ again. I’d believed I’d see my JJ again.
I sighed and took stock of the few aches and pains that lingered. My body had been and still was drained by the mind-blowing orgasm I’d experienced in the shower. The whole time JJ had been running his hands over me to help ease my stiff muscles as the warm water had rained down on our bodies, I’d been hard as a rock.
Painfully so.
I’d wanted JJ in a way I’d never wanted anyone in my entire life. By some miracle, I’d kept my hands to myself as his hands had begun massaging my ass but by the time he’d slid his fingers in my crease, I’d been lost. I’d wanted nothing more than to explore his body the way he’d been exploring mine. I’d wanted to taste, lick, feel every part of him. I’d wanted to hear his deep, throaty moans as I brought him to the edge of release over and over again. I’d wanted to bury myself inside of him in a way that no one could ever tear us apart again.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as my dick began to get hard all over again.
None of it should have happened. What I’d begged him to do to me in that shower, crawling into bed with him afterwards, falling into a deep sleep because I knew JJ was right there beside me—none of it should have happened because I hadn’t brought him up here for that. I’d brought him to the cabin for two things.
To keep him safe.
And to find the proof he needed that would make him finally believe I wasn’t the monster he thought I was.
I’d promised myself—not to mention Sully—that the time we spent at the cabin would only be about focusing on the case. Since Sully apparently had some kind of third eye when it came to my attraction to JJ, the chances were high that his big brother wouldn’t give a shit if JJ found the proof he needed to finally believe me.
Either way, I was leaving the cabin in a body bag or as an innocent man. Hell, knowing Sully, it could be both. The asshole would probably be thrilled to learn that his little brother no longer believed I was a soulless murderer, but he’d kill me anyway because I’d done things to JJ that I’d promised I wouldn’t.