Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“We just never know with reptiles,” he said.
I nodded in understanding.
Once my arm was bandaged, I withdrew from the counter and ran my fingers over the gauze. He’d done a good job. The pain wasn’t unbearable either.
“Go to a clinic when you get home,” he told me. “They’ll help you remove the stitches in a couple weeks.”
“Thank you.” I watched as he made quick work of redressing his own wound. It only required a larger Band-Aid, one of those with a compress underneath. “Have you ever been bitten by a venomous snake?”
“A few times, sure.” He stowed away everything in his medic bag again. “Rattlesnake once—but it didn’t inject any venom. Couple cottonmouth bites. Fucking bitch of a snake, the only one I don’t like handling whatsoever. I almost lost a toe when I was seventeen. And…one or two warning bites from copperheads when I was stationed in Texas. You lift a goddamn rock, and boom, they charge.”
I grinned. “What about spiders?”
“I don’t go near the little fuckers,” he replied bluntly. “You know how Willie thinks everything black-and-white is a tegu? That’s how I am with spiders and the brown recluse. I got bit as a kid—scarred me for life.”
“Aww,” I chuckled. “Who knew the big, bad snake hunter suffered from arachnophobia?”
He smirked lazily. “Big and bad, huh?”
I was not going to stroke his ego upon seeing the cockiness in his too-damn-sexy eyes. “And soft, like a teddy bear.” I stood up and squeezed by him to pour another drink of gin. “Utterly innocent. The prey kind of guy.”
“Lay it on a bit thicker, kid.”
“So cute that you kinda wanna speak to him like he’s a widdle baby.” I smiled to myself and turned around with my filled glass.
We were probably standing way too close to each other in the narrow walkway for me to taunt him, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to see how he’d react.
I took a sip of the cold gin as the dark glint of amusement flitted by in his gaze.
“You got me all figured out.” He pushed away from the counter on the other side and closed the distance between us. But all he did was steal my drink—and he maintained eye contact as he drained the glass.
Jesus, he had me completely trapped. I could leave right now. I should leave right now—get back to the others and my boyfriend, who was undoubtedly coping with his Walker news by getting smashed. Instead, I didn’t move an inch. I stayed right there and let a blanket of heat envelop me.
The air around us felt hotter too. Heavier.
He held the glass between us. “Pour another one.”
I swallowed the butterflies threatening to fly out of me and accepted the glass, then turned around and grabbed the bottle.
A second later, I felt his body heat against my exposed back, and his hands appeared on either side of me on the edge of the counter.
I sucked in a breath.
“I’ll show you just how soft and innocent I am,” he murmured in my ear. Oh my God. I shivered violently, and he brushed his lips to my neck. “I’m safe and I mean no harm, to quote you.”
My fingers trembled, causing the bottle to clink against the glass.
“I’ll trust you to call red the second I overstep.” He drew another shudder from me, and I didn’t know if it was his words or his hands shifting to my hips. “I’d love to hunt you down, Lane. I don’t have any known triggers either, and my threshold for pain is high.” When the tip of his tongue flicked my earlobe, my knees nearly gave in. “I’ll rape the fuck out of you,” he whispered. “I want you sobbing, choking on my cock, and terrified that I’ll stop too late.”
I was done for. Desire crashed into me, pulled me under, and stole my strength. I managed to set down the bottle before he took over. He spun me around, cupped the back of my neck, dipped down, and kissed me hard.
Fuck me sideways, Marina’s dad.
This was bad.
But so, so, so good.
I locked my arms around his neck and surrendered to him as fast as humanly possible. We deepened the kiss at the same time, and he swept his tongue around mine in the most sensual, greedy motion I’d ever felt. All while he played with the edge of my towel.
We kissed hungrily, and I knotted my fingers in his hair, tugging at it. My fucking God, he was an intoxicating kisser. Ty was hot and cold, soft tongue and demanding pushes, easily staking claim without ownership, all fire and passion without promises. He controlled the kiss, the pace, the intensity. And I was so wrapped up in the seduction that I didn’t notice him stripping me of the towel until it pooled around my feet.