Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“You cut your hair.” She ran her free hand over the pelt of dark hair he was still getting used to. He’d cut it about a week ago, and it was shorter than he’d worn it in years.
“It was so hot.” He leaned his head deeper into her palm, like it held salve for a wound.
“It was hot where you were?” Jo kept her tone politely curious, but she didn’t fool him. She wanted to know so badly where he’d been. He pulled her hand down to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.
“I was in Crete, baby.”
“As in Greece?” Questions queued up in her eyes, waiting their turn.
“Yeah. Greece.”
“When are you…?” Jo looked through a stained glass window before resettling her eyes on his face. “I need you home.”
She knew how to demolish him. He could see the evidence of how much she needed him. Jo took care of everyone else, and for some reason, he was the only one she ever allowed to take care of her. He pulled her close beside him, and she laid her head on his shoulder.
“Soon, I hope.” Cam swallowed, senses on high alert like he was defusing a bomb. “I, uh, I’ve been talking to Kerris’s counselor, Dr. Stein, by Skype. We have our first face-to-face meeting today since I’m in town.”
“How’s that been?”
“Good. Hard. Like picking at a sore that’s never quite healed. I see why I should have done it years ago.”
“And the dreams?”
“I haven’t been having them every night.” Cam rubbed her shoulder through the sleek leather. “I had a really intense one last night, probably triggered by everything with Deuce.”
“We don’t have to sleep together, you know, if you’re worried about…you know.” She hushed the words, maybe because they were in a church. Maybe because she wanted him to strain closer to hear her.
“I know. We’ll see.”
Talking with Dr. Stein, he’d realized part of why he left wasn’t just fear he’d blow Jo’s brains out, but also the shame. Apparently he was one big recycling bin of shame. Just pour it in and he found new and improved uses for it. Shame from Mac’s abuse. Shame about his mother’s complete indifference to him. Nearly shooting the woman he loved in the head? Cherry-on-top shame. Even now he couldn’t look at Jo without a trickle of shame running down the wall of emotions he was feeling.
“My appointment with Dr. Stein is soon.” He stood, extending his hand for her to stand, too. “She only had one slot available.”
Jo rose, and the breath in his lungs frayed from the impact. It was even worse than he’d thought. The dress was black leather, so that was baseline sexy as hell, but on another woman, it probably would have been just a cool dress. Slightly edgy and obviously expensive. On Jo? Not to be ironically blasphemous, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The leather flowed like liquid over every line and curve, nipping in at her waist and sheathing her hips and thighs. It wasn’t indecent. Jo just had one of those bodies that looked decadent in everything. It didn’t help that her four-inch heels stretched her legs out and put her eye-to-eye with him. His glorious amazon. She wasn’t aware of any of it, had turned without realizing the view left him speechless and embarrassingly hard in a church where he’d come to pay his respects.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to his chest. She stiffened for a moment before relaxing into him. He linked their hands on either side of them.
“This isn’t easy for me either, Jo.” Cam brushed his lips across the silky skin of her neck. “Do you think I wouldn’t rather be with you every minute we can spare?”
Jo turned to face him, looping her arms around his waist.
“I miss you every minute of every day.” Her fresh breath cooled his lips and heated his blood. “I can barely eat. I can’t concentrate. My body aches. My heart is split open.”
She leaned forward, pulling his bottom lip between hers, licking into the corners. “Come home, baby. Please come home.”
He’d fooled himself into thinking he could resist that mouth, but he couldn’t, not when it spilled soul-stripping words like that. He pressed Jo’s back until her breasts flattened between them. He cupped one side of her face, bringing her mouth to his. The kiss was an opiate, dulling all the pain.
“I think it would be bad for my tongue to be down your throat in the church,” he said against her lips, whispering kisses across the smile on her lips.
“I agree, but it was nice while it lasted.” Jo turned, keeping his hand and walking ahead of him out into the cold November day. He frowned when she shivered just a little on the church steps.
“Where’s your coat?”
“I left it in the car. It’s fine. I’ll be quick.”