Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 38439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 38439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 192(@200wpm)___ 154(@250wpm)___ 128(@300wpm)
“No.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. She looked as shell-shocked as I felt. If I was going to convince her I was serious about us being together, about not dissolving our marriage, it was now or never.
“You sayin’ that because it’s the truth, or because you don’t want to be alone?”
Finally, the dam burst. Hope’s tears were my punishment. For everything. They’d hurt before, the first day I’d been such an ass when I found her with Razor playing with that fucking dog, but nothing like this. This whole situation, one I’d started, had been her goodbye. She’d wanted the sex I’d denied us both the previous weeks. Now that she’d gotten what she wanted, she was prepared to leave.
“Stop, baby. I can’t take your tears -- they’re killing me.” She clung tightly. Like I was her lifeline. It felt better than I’d ever imagined even as her sorrow and grief gutted me like nothing else ever could. “I’m not going anywhere, Hope, and neither are you. We’re married. There are bonds tying us together that can never be broken.”
“You’re d-doing exactly th-that! Wrath and Sh-Shotgun are f-fixing it! Y-you said s-so!”
“They were. Wrath gave me an ultimatum today. Sign the paper and let him file it, or claim you like we both want.”
“But you h-hate me.”
“Honey, do you think I’d come to you every single night if I hated you? Do my best to pleasure you?”
“You never st-stayed. If you liked me, you’d have stayed.” She looked up at me then. There was so much sadness, so much longing, my heart broke. Right there. Looking into the clearest blue eyes I’d ever seen, my old, iron-clad heart shattered into a million pieces. “You didn’t even want to have sex with me!”
“Baby, I wanted you so much I ached with it. I knew that once I had you, my choices would be taken away. As much as I thought I loved Bev, those feelings were nothing compared to what I feel for you. Believe it or not, it scared the living fuck outta me.”
She met my gaze. “Are you going to leave now?”
“No, honey. My leaving you stops this second. I’m never leaving you again.”
“Don’t say that! You never wanted this! Not from the first second you saw that marriage certificate!”
“I did. I just didn’t want to admit it.” I pulled her tightly against me, positioning her so she lay on top of me. My cock was still firmly embedded inside her, my erection not diminishing even after coming my fucking brains out. “I’m going to admit something to you that I never thought I’d say. You know my mother and I had a contentious relationship at best. What you don’t know, and what I never realized until the day you walked into my life, is that my mother knew her son. She knew what I needed even when I didn’t. She always has. I thought this was all about you. That she wanted you safe and protected and loved when she knew you’d never had that in your life. At least not like I’d had it growing up. And it was. To a certain extent.” I rubbed my hand up and down her back, hoping like hell it soothed her. “But it wasn’t all about you. It was about me, too. She knew me well enough to know I needed you as much as you needed me. Even if we hadn’t spoken in ten years. She knew.”
She laid her head on my shoulder, her lips brushing softly against my neck. “I don’t know what to believe.”
“You give me this one last chance, and you’ll know exactly what to believe, honey. One more chance. I’m telling you now I’m all in with this. With you.” I squeezed her tightly. “With us.”
“I want to. So much it hurts.” She clung to me and shifted a bit. Probably getting comfortable. Then her breath caught.
“What is it, Hope? Do you hurt?”
“I -- no.” She wiggled again and a whimper escaped her.
“Ahhh.” I gave a shallow thrust inside her, my cock giving a very interested jerk. “I see.”
“How can this feel so good?”
“You got me, baby. Sex has always been good, but I’ve never felt anything like what I feel when I’m inside you.”
She raised her head to look down at me. Her delicate brows pinched together in confusion. “What do you mean? Doesn’t it, you know, all feel the same?”
“I thought it did. Until I got my first taste of you. Hell, watching you come is an experience in itself. Makes me so fuckin’ hard I nearly cream my pants every fuckin’ time.” I’d never talked dirty to her before. Now, I wanted to see how she’d react. Sure enough, her eyes got big, and her pussy clenched around me. She sucked in a startled breath and clutched my shoulders harder.