Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 104151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
She watched me with wide, cautious eyes as I filled a glass with ice and poured the root beer over it. While I capped the bottle, she took a sip. When she licked the froth from her top lip, my dick stirred to life.
Our tacos were getting cold. Josh was upstairs, although dead to the world. There were ten years of life between us. And all of that was above and beyond the family connection and her father being the town’s preacher.
Still, I pushed the hair off her shoulder, and she swallowed hard before her lips parted. I took the glass from her and set it on the counter with my other hand.
“Why do you have to be eighteen, Eve?” I said, gazing at my hand as my knuckles brushed her neck.
“Because my parents had unprotected sex in 1968.” She bit her lip.
This. Girl. Was. Me!
I was a wise guy at her age. Trouble found me, and I welcomed it. Conforming felt like a crime, and rebellion flowed through my veins. Had I been dead, I would have said Eve was my reincarnation.
When I looked into her eyes, she rolled her lips together to suppress her grin, but I made no effort to control mine.
“They had it in 1966 too, but my twenty-year-old sister is taken.”
She made my face hurt from grinning nonstop. “Why do I want to kiss you so badly?” I murmured.
Her chest rose and fell faster and faster, and her lips parted to accommodate each quickening breath. “Um …” Again, she swallowed, and her face tensed with concentration.
“It’s a rhetorical question,” I whispered.
Eve bobbed her head several times.
“We should finish eating. I’m terrible at just kissing.” I handed the drink back to her.
Eve inhaled a shaky breath and took the root beer, but she didn’t look at me.
There was no logical reason to kiss her. The math didn’t add up. But I loved the sparkle in her eyes when she looked at Josh, and the way she bit her lips to hide her smile when she gazed at me.
The fire in her belly ignited something inside of me.
For a stolen moment, I wasn’t a single dad; she wasn’t ten years younger. I was a man who wanted to kiss a woman.
Because she was beautiful.
And funny. God, I loved her humor.
Her insatiable curiosity and rebellious desire.
The way my little boy squealed with joy in her presence.
Her shy grin.
Long, fluttering eyelashes.
Tart apples.
Sweet cinnamon and sugar.
Stargazing on the dock.
Defiant chin lifts.
And the sheer euphoria I felt when she walked into any room because she was so unpredictable.
Eve stared at her drink for several seconds before returning it to the counter. Then she rested her hands on my chest (a really bad idea) and lifted her gaze to mine. “I’m not that great at just kissing either,” she murmured.
I gave her credit for feigning confidence, but her voice trembled. Her whole body shook.
I couldn’t uncross the line, so I idly stared at it. “This is a terrible idea,” I whispered more to myself than her.
She shrugged a shoulder. “How do you know? You haven’t kissed me yet.”
Take a bite of the apple.
“I hate cold tacos,” I said, stepping backward and turning to lead the way back to the sofa.
“You can’t do that to me.” She followed on my heels.
I sat on the sofa and resumed eating my taco. “Do what?” I mumbled, slowly chewing.
Eve parked her hands on her hips. “Tease me. I will not be toyed with like a cat. You can’t say that and not kiss me.”
God, she was even more beautiful when she was mad. Her pink cheeks and the determination in her dark brown eyes tried to unravel me.
“It was just an idea,” I said, watching the TV. “Talking out loud. Like should I go fishing or hunting? Then I think over the pros and cons of each and make a decision.”
“You didn’t give me a say in the matter.”
I swallowed and licked my lips, shifting my attention to her. “Sorry. What say you?”
She crossed her arms over her chest but didn’t speak.
My heart raced because whether or not it was a good idea, I knew she’d let me do just about anything to her. And that made my mind go in directions it didn’t need to go. It was a war between my fleeting rational thoughts and my dick that wanted me to let things happen, fuck the consequences.
“You’re getting in over your head,” I said, shifting the blame to her. I was fine, completely in control.
Liar.
I was the wolf, the hunter.
Eve was my prey, and I was giving her time to run.
But she didn’t have a bone of self-preservation in her body. Eve didn’t just gravitate toward trouble, she was trouble.
For three full seconds, I felt like my self-control was winning because her hands fell to her sides as she deflated. But in the next breath, she shrugged off her hoodie and then her T-shirt.