Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
I splayed my fingers across his chest, heart picking up speed. Jacques would toss me off him any minute now. I’d better get in my delight before he did.
“I admit, things would’ve gone very differently the night that bound us together. I wouldn’t have attempted suicide, and I would not have gone back after giving you guys the slip in the woods.” Jacques went rigid beneath me. “I know you don’t want to hear that, but I’ve always been honest with you, Jacques. Even when I didn’t know who I was, all I’ve ever told you was what I believed was true.”
My hands left his shoulders and found mine, peeling my bra straps down. “If I was Ivy back then, we’d never have gotten together. Maybe in some strange way, all this pain and tragedy brought me to you.”
“And that’s a good thing?’ he asked. “Sounds like you expect the rules to change.”
“Things will change in some ways.” My boobs sprang free. “I couldn’t give less of a shit about Scott Cavendish. Why should any of us pretend you’re still punishing me for killing him and framing you? No, from now on...” My lips pressed to his ear, breasts flattening on his chest. “You’ll spank, paddle, and fuck me like a wild animal because that’s how we like it. Hot, dirty, and nasty.” His cock twitched beneath me. “That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”
“We can’t keep going like nothing’s changed.”
“Okay.” I shoved up, walking off. “I don’t have much stuff. It won’t take me long to pack it.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I tossed my response over my shoulder. “Going back to Paris’s until I can arrange a place to stay. If it’s really over between us, it wouldn’t be fair to any of us to force ourselves to live together.”
“Stop.”
“Who knows?” I hit the bottom step. “Maybe some distance will be good for us. When you’ve all accepted that this is who I am now, we can start over and try—”
“Stop,” he barked, breaking his even tone for the third time since we met. “That’s one. No one gave you permission to leave. Turn around and get back here.”
I wiped the victory off my face before climbing off the steps. Giving me a number was the most hopeful thing he’d said to me all day. Spankings were foreplay for Jacques Stone.
Returning to him, Jacques grasped my hips and placed me on his lap before I could squeak. I bit back a hiss as his fingers dug into my ass.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Absolutely,” I said, “as long as you answer a question for me. Do you want me to stay because you don’t trust me, or because you still love me?”
“This little game made no difference. I do not know you, Ivy de Souza, so the answer must be the former. Because it can’t be the latter.”
“Yes, it can, Jacques.” I glided over his prickly, sexy stubble. “Because everything doesn’t have to be logical.”
I couldn’t stop myself tracing his lips, framing his nose, and sinking in cold, dark eyes. The man I loved both held me in possession and looked at me like a stranger. “I’m still me, Jacques, and you know I am. You can feel it.”
“I feel noth—”
Swooping down, I crashed our lips together. Jacques grabbed the back of my head—fisting my hair like he was going to pull me off. Throwing my arms around him, I deepened the kiss.
Our tongues collided in a battle of fury, frustration, and a feeling I couldn’t and had never been able to name when I was with Jacques. He was rude, arrogant, cold, but when I was with him, I felt like we were both with the person who’d never judge us.
Jacques knew I looked at him and saw more than an oddity with a high IQ. He looked at Rainey and just saw her—no prejudices or preformed opinions about the fresh-off-the-farm homeschooler that was clueless about life in Bedlam. I knew he could look at me and just see me. I just had to get through the walls he was fighting to build back up.
I broke from him gasping and head spinning. “Was that real, baby? If I’m someone else, why do I kiss like the woman you love?”
“Argh!” Jacques pounced. Twisting me, he spread me on the couch and crushed me under his weight. His hands were everywhere. Running down my thighs, finding where they parted, sliding them open, and grinding his middle between my legs. I snagged his hands and brought them between us, placing them over my breasts. He didn’t need encouragement to tweak them mercilessly, drawing heated moans into our kiss.
Of all of my guys, I didn’t think Jacques would be next to fall after Roan. They were all mine. They would have to accept that this was me, and the real Ivy was still the woman they needed... because she was just as ruthless and possessive as the Bedlam Boys could ever be.