Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“I want to confirm some things, just so we have nothing unsaid.”
“Okay.”
Her gaze is dark, serious, as she gazes up at me. “The marriage will be legal?”
“Yes.”
“And we won’t step out on each other.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Nor would I.” She nods. “I’ll move in. We’ll share a bed because you can’t play good hockey when you’re sleeping on the couch.”
“I would do that if it’d make you comfortable.”
She waves me off. “I want to learn everything there is to know about the coffeehouse, but I’ll have to be at the bookshop too.”
I nod. “Not a problem. If you want to stay with your sister when I’m on road trips, that would be fine with me as long as you can open the coffeehouse for me.”
“I can do that,” she agrees. “I don’t want to be just roommates. I want to be friends.”
“Agreed.”
“I want to know you.”
My heart swells. “I want the same.”
“Is there anything you want?”
You. “You agreeing to this will give me what I want.”
Her eyes darken to brown, and fuck, I want to kiss her. She swallows, her chest rising and falling. “I told you I haven’t had the best dating life, and when I tell you it’s been rough, I’m not lying.” I don’t know how that’s possible, but I’m thankful every other dude was a dud. If they had locked her down, I wouldn’t have this chance. I wouldn’t have this woman. “I want to come every day.”
Well, fuck me sideways.
My eyes widen at her confession, and my cock roars to life, throbbing the instant the words leave her mouth. “Excuse me?” I somehow get out, though my voice sounds like gravel being crunched in a parking lot. “Come where?”
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be dense,” she demands, almost proudly. Her little chin is jutted toward me. “I want to come daily. I don’t care how you make it happen, but you have to make it happen for me to agree to this.”
My voice is strained. “I gotta travel.”
“There is FaceTime.” Just the thought of watching her get herself off under my gaze and from my words has me burning from the inside out.
“You want me to be in control of your pleasure?” I ask through my teeth, willing myself not to tackle her and do just that.
Her eyes dance with mine, burning with desire. “Yes, every day.”
I run my fingers through my hair, speechless. This is no hardship, and I know I would enjoy myself, so why am I not agreeing? “Sex can bring feelings, McDavid. You sure?”
“I’m gonna catch them anyway,” she says with a shrug. “At least I’ll enjoy it until my heart is broken.”
The sadness in her voice kills me. I don’t want to break her heart, but I need her. I meet her gaze, and I swear I can hear her heart pounding. Or maybe it’s mine. I don’t know, but I want this. Her. Us.
“It would be a privilege to make you come. Every. Single. Day.”
Her eyes widen a bit before they become hooded, her breathing labored as her gaze stays locked with mine. “Should we shake on it?”
I shake my head, and without hesitation, I snake my arm around her waist and bring her to me. I have to bend down to reach her mouth, but I don’t mind. “No, McDavid. We kiss to seal this deal.”
“Now?”
“Right now,” I murmur before I capture her lips with mine. Her lips are lovely, soft, and…fuck, I like kissing her. I almost try to deepen it, I yearn to run my tongue along hers, but I know if I do, I won’t stop.
And we need to get married.
I pull away and bask in her dazed look. Her lashes kissing her cheeks, her mouth parted, her lips swollen and pink. She leaves me breathless, fully fucking breathless. I cup her jaw, running my thumb along her bottom lip. “Okay, McDavid, let’s go get married.”
CHAPTER 14
Eliza
“It would be a privilege to make you come. Every. Single. Day.”
Every.
Single.
Day.
When I admitted what I wanted, I was nearly beside myself. I don’t know what came over me, but if I’m going to do this, I want to enjoy myself. I want to feel good, and given the heat that burns between us, I know I’ll feel good with him in charge of my pleasure. In all my life, I’ve never been so blunt. So wanton. But I can’t help myself. Even if I know the end is going to suck, I refuse to live in the past or the future. I’m living in the now. And right now, I want whatever pleasure he’ll bring me.
I want him.
He stands so tall, so confident, beside me as we wait. When I was younger, my sisters and I would play wedding. We usually married each other or whatever stray dog or cat we found. I married a lot of cats during that phase, and I always made sure to wear white. If it was a sheet or a dress that I made, it was always the color of purity. I used to dream of my future self doing the same, with a prince beside me and my family looking on.