Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
And the wine, beer and cocktails had flowed freely.
Everyone had changed into something comfortable before going over, and it got to be like a party. There was laughter. Phone numbers were exchanged. Future plans were made.
And Ronetta gave Harry a tour of her sunroom, which rested across the entire back of their house. This meant he walked through the length of it, seeing they might have cut their long backyard in half, but they’d doubled the footprint of the house, giving everyone their own space—including their kids when they’d been at home—and then some.
It gave Harry food for thought.
“Yes,” he answered Lillian’s question.
“Nothing the Double D’s French toast won’t fix,” she told him. Her lips quirked and she remarked, “Your dad seemed really excited to tuck into their biscuits and gravy.”
“When he comes up, we usually meet at Josh and Amanda’s. He hasn’t been back to MP in…” Harry thought about it, “since I won the election.”
“I’m glad he’s taking advantage of being home.”
Harry smiled at her.
Her eyes warmed when he did.
Then they wandered.
They caught on something, and she noted, “I’ve been forgetting to turn down the furnace.”
He glanced where her eyes were aimed, saw nothing, and asked, “Sorry?”
She sipped again and shared, “I like to turn down the furnace at night. Sleep snuggly.” She gave him a look he felt in his crotch on the word “snuggly,” before she continued, “It also helps with the gas bill. But I’ve been forgetting.”
He turned again to the wall, and it was then he saw an old dial thermostat he was shocked as shit still worked, considering it had to have been installed in the seventies.
“While you’re at the spa, I’ll go by Mackey’s.” Mackey’s was the local hardware store. “Get you a thermostat you can program and control on your phone. I’ll set it up, have that taken care of before you get back from the Pinetop.”
She said nothing. Didn’t protest. There was no you don’t have to do that or that’s too much, and when Harry returned his attention to her, his body locked.
Lillian had rested her cheek on her knee, but her gaze was on him, a look on her face he’d seen nuances of since he’d met her, but the feeling behind it was full force now, nothing buried, nothing hidden, nothing restrained, and it hit him like a rocket.
There was gratitude, and such depth of affection, it felt like it filled the room, he was swimming in it, and the waters were cleansing and warm.
And he’d been reborn.
Harry’s mug crashed on the counter, and in two long strides, his swift movements making Smokey jerk up, he was at Lillian.
She’d lifted her head, and he pulled her mug out of her hold, set it on the kitchen table, caught her at the back of the neck and bent to take her mouth.
She opened immediately at the insistence of his tongue, and on his first stroke, she mewed into his mouth. The sound and feel sent a shock of heat through his body straight to his dick, and he sliced an arm around her back and yanked her out of her chair.
But it was Lillian who wrapped her arms tight around his neck and plastered her body to his.
It wasn’t the time.
Though, it was.
They both knew it.
They hungered for this, needed to feed from it, the effort at keeping it at bay had drained both of them, and they had to fill up, doing it taking from the other.
Which was why Harry and Lillian both angled their heads, and the kiss became carnal.
She pulled his tee up at the back, and when her nails scored along the skin there, Harry grunted and grasped her waist.
He picked her up, turned her, put her on her ass on the edge of the kitchen table, then bent over her so her back was to it.
She wrapped her legs around his hips, and fuck…
Fuck…
That felt so goddamned good, he grunted into her mouth and slid his hands up her sides to her tits, where he used both thumbs to drag hard at her nipples.
She dug her feet in as leverage and rubbed herself against his stiff cock.
Jesus, he needed inside her.
And she needed him inside her.
Her drapes and blinds were open. He had to get her to her room.
This was happening.
His phone vibrated at his ass.
They both stilled, but Harry did it while groaning.
He couldn’t ignore it.
It wasn’t about his job. For Lillian, right now, that could wait.
It was that it could be something about her parents’ case.
He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers, their heavy breaths mingling.
When he opened his eyes and lifted away, he saw loss in hers for a moment, but her gaze moved over his face, and something entirely feminine, exquisitely possessive and excruciatingly satisfied entered her expression.