Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Suddenly, the single most important thing in my life became getting her to bend to my will, even in this small way. “Say it, princess. Say please.”
Beg me.
Her throat contracted as she swallowed. “Please.”
Air hissed through my clenched teeth as I pushed the tip of my thumb inside her warm, wet mouth. “Say it again.”
Her cool fingers clasped around my wrist as she whimpered.
“Say it again,” I repeated more forcefully.
The sweep of her tongue against my thumb almost sent me over the edge as she rasped, “Please.”
I leaned my forehead against hers as I pulled her breath into my lungs. My free hand pushed into the soft waves of her hair as I anchored her head within my grasp. I thrust my thumb deeper into her mouth. “Suck it.”
Pale pink manicured nails pressed crescents into my wrists as she squirmed within my embrace, trying to dislodge my hand.
It wasn’t going to happen.
Although still my plan, my intent had changed.
Over the course of my duties, I had often noticed her.
Watched her.
It would have been impossible not to.
She was just so beautiful, but it was a distant, fragile beauty.
As if she were a porcelain figurine too delicate and expensive to touch.
But now, her warm, soft body was pressed against mine.
Finally.
And I was finding it difficult to keep my baser instincts in check. It was taking all my disciplined training not to flip her around, press her against the wall, and pound into her from behind like a fucking animal.
Especially as I watched those full lips pursed around my thumb as she obediently sucked it.
Fuck me.
This was my boss’ precious daughter. His innocent, precious daughter.
Men like Lucian Manwarring didn’t fool me.
I’d seen it countless times in the upper ranks of the Marines. Officers who were brutally unfeeling and ruthless when it came to the training of the men below them, but who wouldn’t hesitate to take a bullet for those same men.
A leader needed to be cold and calculating to protect the unit.
Surviving in the upper echelons of corporate America and among the high society families of New York City was a daily war.
And while the consequences may not be deadly, there were still casualties, like not being the ideal father. I knew that from personal experience, which was why I saw right through Lucian.
I had been hired to guard the protective wall he had built around his daughter… not to tear it down.
Still… I was only a man.
With a guttural moan, I pulled my thumb from her mouth and grasped her jaw, forcing her head back. My lips lowered… stopping barely a breath away from touching her.
Instinctively, I knew if I kissed her… it would be game over.
Her body trembled.
I pressed into her more deeply as my gaze fixated on her closed eyes. The thin skin of her eyelids gave the rapid movement of her eyes beneath them away.
It would be so easy.
Just a taste.
Just a small lick to see if she tasted as sweet as in my fantasies.
The distant murmur of voices, carried as a faint echo down the expansive hallway, broke the spell.
Curling my hands into fists, I launched myself backwards until I was a respectable distance from her.
Charlotte swayed at the sudden loss of my body pushed against her own.
My arm rose, ready to catch her.
Her thick eyelashes fluttered as she opened her eyes. For just the barest of seconds, she stared back at me through an unfocused haze of burgeoning awareness.
Then she slipped behind her father’s protective wall.
The color rose on her cheeks as she swiped the back of her hand over her lips as if to wipe the taste of my skin away.
Possessive anger came to life from deep inside my chest. I had to fight the impulse to grab her hair and force her to her knees as I reached for the zipper of my pants, almost overwhelmed by the driving need to imprint my taste, my scent, my mark on her.
With her chin tilted up, she stepped out of the traitorous alcove shadows, back into the glaring light. “Obviously, this is not going to work. I’ll ask my father to assign someone else as my bodyguard.”
Objective achieved.
My plan had worked.
Which was why what I did next made absolutely no sense.
CHAPTER 3
CHARLOTTE
“Nice try, princess. You’re stuck with me.”
I clutched the pearls at my throat.
To have this man following me around, always standing close by—watching over me—would be a disaster. My upbringing had not equipped me with the skills needed to keep a guard dog like Sergeant Reid Taylor on a leash.
I desperately wished that wasn’t true. I had plenty of friends who reveled in their feminine power over men, who loved flirting and taunting and keeping them dancing at the end of their fingertips, but I was most definitely not one of them.
Even the very idea has me practically breaking out in hives.