Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
She looks up at me, her blue eyes shining in the dim light, and I know I’m done for. I reach out, cupping her chin gently in my hand, tilting her face up toward mine.
“Ranger…” she whispers, her voice unsure but her gaze steady.
“I can’t stop thinking about you,” I admit, my voice rough. “You’ve been in my head since the moment I saw you.”
She swallows hard, her lips parting slightly as her breath hitches.
I don’t wait. I close the space between us, brushing my lips against hers softly at first, testing. Her response is immediate—her hands come up, grabbing the front of my shirt, pulling me closer. I deepen the kiss, tilting my head as her mouth opens for me, and the world falls away.
She tastes like sugar and salt, sweet and wild, and I lose myself completely. My hands slide around her waist, holding her tightly against me, needing to feel her, to know she’s real. Her fingers grip my shirt like she’s afraid I’ll disappear, and I kiss her harder, pouring every unspoken word, every buried emotion into her.
When we finally break apart, we’re both breathless, our foreheads pressed together.
“Ranger,” she whispers, her voice trembling.
I slide my thumb over her cheek, my heart pounding harder than it ever has. “I don’t know what this is, Tory,” I murmur, “but I know I don’t want it to end.”
She looks up at me, her eyes full of something I can’t name but desperately want to hold onto.
“Me either,” she says softly.
I smile faintly, pressing a kiss to her forehead before pulling her into my arms. And for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Chapter 10
Tory
I want to feel him again—his lips on mine, his hands holding me close—but I don’t want to assume. What if I’m reading this all wrong? What if this is just him being kind, protective, doing his job?
Sure, he’s said things to me over the past two days, things that have made my heart race and my pulse stumble. The way he looks at me sometimes, like I’m the only person in the room, it feels real. Too real. And that terrifies me.
Could a man like Ranger—strong, confident, so sure of himself—really fall for someone like me? Someone who’s spent most of her life buried in textbooks and lab work, someone who struggles to say what she feels without fumbling for the right words? It doesn’t seem possible.
Men like him don’t fall for women like me. They fall for women who are bold and fearless, women who aren’t afraid to take what they want. I’m not like that. I’m careful. I think everything through, analyze it from every angle. Love isn’t supposed to just happen, right? It’s supposed to follow logic and reason, building slowly like a careful experiment.
But nothing about Ranger feels careful or logical. He’s like a storm—powerful, unpredictable, impossible to ignore. He makes me feel things I don’t know how to process, things that don’t fit into the neat boxes I’ve spent my life constructing.
And yet, here I am, hoping, wanting. Wondering if maybe—just maybe—he feels it too. Wondering if all those little moments were real, or if I’m just imagining them.
When he calls me brilliant, when he says I’m more than I think I am, it makes me believe I could be someone different. Someone who’s brave enough to take a risk. Someone who could deserve a man like him.
But is it real? Can it be real? Or am I just setting myself up to fall?
His eyes meet mine. “Tory, I…”
I don’t know what he’s going to say, but I feel it too. I nod, my hands gripping onto him like a lifeline. “Don’t let me go,” I tell him and he wraps his strong arms around me, holding me tight.
“I won’t. I’ve got you.” He leans in, capturing my lips once more with his. He deepens the kiss, and I nearly melt into him.
Is this real life?
“I need you,” he utters against my mouth. “So badly.” It’s like a prayer, a request. One he’s not sure I’ll fulfill, but for the first time in my life I’ve never felt more ready to go all the way with a man.
Wrapped in each other’s arms we finagle our way into the house, bumping into walls and laughing as we do. Until finally, Ranger lifts me into his arms and carries me into the back bedroom. He sets me down, and I suck in a deep breath.
I glance over at the bed. “I should mention I’ve never done anything like this before. There was this one guy, Chris, but we only ever really kissed, and…” I realize I’m rambling and I blink up at Ranger.
“I’m going to need his full name and social security number.”