Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79112 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
I shrug. “Friends.”
“Male friends?”
“Female, not that it’s any of your business.”
His smile is calculated. “Oh, but I intend to make it my business.” He crosses the distance I’ve put between us, the gleam in his eyes predatory. “I’m going to take you to bed again, Katyusha. And again. And while you’re in my bed, you won’t let another man into your body. You won’t even smile at another man. I don’t like to share. Think you can handle that?”
My back hits the wall. I stare up at the hard lines of his face. My heart says no, but my lips don’t form the word. I don’t want him to know how weak he makes me, how vulnerable.
“Good,” he murmurs, leaning in for a kiss.
I splay my palms on his chest. “This isn’t what I want.”
“No?” He raises a brow. “Let me kiss you and tell me again you don’t want me.”
“That’s not fair,” I say on a whisper. He knows the power he wields over me.
Victory shines in his eyes. “Just one little kiss. If you still tell me no, I’ll book you into a hotel.”
“You will?” I hate how breathless I sound.
“Yes,” he says, planting his hands next to my face on the wall. “I promise.”
I steel myself when he brings his mouth lower, but when he brushes his lips over mine, yearning spreads through my body. I couldn’t summon enough willpower to push him away even if I wanted to. His touch is too potent. Sparks ignite under my skin as he traces the curve of my lips with his tongue and sucks gently to mold my mouth to his rhythm.
However hard I try, I can’t be unaffected. He knows this, and he’s using it to his advantage, but I can’t bring myself to care, not when he slides his tongue into my mouth and sweeps it over my own. Just like that, my resolve goes up in flames, especially when he slips a hand between our bodies and cups my sex over my jeans.
Shamelessly, I arch my hips into his palm, craving more friction. He doesn’t hesitate. He delivers, rubbing the heel of his palm in a circular motion. My toes curl from the pleasure. Heat coils through my insides, hard and fast. He groans into my mouth as I grab the lapels of his fancy waistcoat, holding him to me as if my life depends on it. The cold of earlier is gone, the pain much less. My head is still throbbing a little, but the discomfort takes a back seat to the endorphins drenching me in a deliriously happy glow.
It’s temporary, Kate, my mind whispers, but I shut it down. I’m too lost in the moment, too needy for release to let logic derail me. My body dictates my moves. When he pushes a thigh between my legs, I rub against him. He triples the intensity of his assault on my mouth, not by violent and frantic kissing, but by pleasuring my mouth with slow, meticulous precision, turning me into putty in his hands. He abandons my sex to frame my face between his large hands, letting me relieve my ache on the hard muscle of his leg. His hard-on presses against my stomach. I slide a palm over his chest to the hardness under his waistline. His cock is the only remedy that can cure my need.
“What you do to me,” he growls into our kiss.
I don’t resist when he sweeps me off my feet and carries me upstairs, even though I know our destination before he pushes open the bedroom door with a shoulder.
He lays me down gently on the mattress before removing my clothes and quickly undressing himself. I shiver with anticipation when he takes a condom from the nightstand drawer, makes quick work of rolling it on, and crawls over me, igniting every inch of my skin with the naked feel of his.
“How’s your head?” he asks when he reaches my neck, planting soft kisses along the arch.
“Better.” The knock was hard, but not so hard that I’ll have a concussion.
He drags a finger over my throat, fury etched in his features. “He left marks on you.”
“They’ll fade,” I say, cupping his cheek. I don’t want to think about the attack. Not now, and maybe not ever.
“I’ll be careful, but I can’t go slow,” he says with a hint of warning. “Not after what almost happened in that alley.”
I swallow and nod. “Skip the foreplay. I need you now.”
He drags a palm down my body and between my legs. He teases the inside of my folds with a fingertip before tracing my slit. My arousal is slick on his finger. He uses it to lubricate my clit and rub it in lazy circles as he aligns his cock with my opening. Then he pushes forward, carefully stretching me.