Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 59738 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59738 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 299(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
“But?” he presses.
Heat blooms in my cheeks as I consider how much to reveal. “I just think maybe we should be honest about expectations from the beginning. I think I have a pretty good grasp on how it works in your world. The wife stays at home, and you guys go out and do whatever, right?”
Conor’s lips tilt at the corners. “You mean with whoever, aye?”
I don’t get a chance to answer because he reaches out and drags me into his lap before I can give it too much thought. I’m not under any illusions about the size of my frame, but in his arms, I feel even smaller. He feels like a shelter, a safe space, and a disaster in the making. But I can’t stop this pull I feel when he’s near. And when his fingers graze my arm, it lights a fire inside of my belly I don’t know how to put out.
“I meant what I said when I told ye that I haven’t been with anyone for years before you.” He leans into my throat and breathes me in. “And I’ve no intention of running off now to stick me dick in everything that has a hole in it. Why would I, when I have you warming my bed at home?”
I relax into him and breathe him in too. It feels reckless to allow myself comfort in his words, but I do.
“I don’t know what the Locos got up to,” he adds. “But our guys are solid. And when we give our word, we bloody well mean it. We are loyal to each other, and ye best believe we are loyal to our wives. If any one of us got caught cheating on the missus, the others would have our nuts for it if she didn’t get to them first. So, don’t think that because Muerto did it, I will too. I’m nothing like that piece of shite. Okay?”
“I know you aren’t,” I admit. “I just… I guess I wanted to hear it from you.”
Conor nods against me, and even though he’s the one that’s wounded, his fingers move over the base of my spine, soothing me in a way that nothing else ever has.
“How’s our boy?” he asks. “Settling in okay?”
Our boy.
The words unthaw the coldest corners of my heart, and even if it’s wrong to let him say it, I like those pretty words from his lips. I like them so much I want to hear him say them over and over again.
“He’s doing good.” I turn into him and lean against his chest. “But he’s been asking where you are.”
“Tomorrow.” He tilts his head toward mine and murmurs against my lips. “We should do something with him tomorrow.”
“Right.” The whisper gets caught somewhere between us, and then swallowed when Conor’s lips sink into mine. Already, I’m used to Conor taking what he wants, but this kiss is different. When he kissed me before, it was a means to an end. To claim me. Possess me. Own me. Fuck me. But something has changed between us on a deeper level, and I can’t deny it. It’s leisurely and passionate. A kiss that could go on forever. I’m breathless and on the edge of sanity when he rolls his hips against my ass, allowing me to feel what I do to him.
“I want you,” he grunts. “Say you want me too.”
I can’t even pretend that I don’t. I cave forward, dragging my fingers through his hair and arching my biting hard nipples against his chest. “I want you too.”
He groans and nips at my throat as his hand tangles in the mass of my hair. “Say it again. Make me believe it.”
I submit to his request, even louder this time. Conor burrows into my collarbone and grazes the sensitive skin with his teeth.
“No, that won’t do. I want to hear ye say it when ye’re full of my cock.”
“Conor?” Ivy blinks up at me shyly, and I don’t respond. I don’t want her to speak right now. I don’t want anything other than these few seconds of quiet.
My eyes roam over the naked artistry of the woman sprawled across my bed, sopping up every detail of her curves. She’s soft in all the places that I’m not. Inches of milky skin and a hypnotic beauty that I’m quickly becoming addicted to. The subtle bows of her hips taper off into a narrow waist and a valley of silky flesh, rounded out by two plush breasts topped with pink nipples. I have a notion to taste them first, but that wouldn’t satiate me. I want all of her. Every intricacy of her body. Every freckle, every scar. There’s an urgency inside of me to memorize her wounds and lay claim to her vulnerability.
Muerto owned her, but he never possessed her. With him, she was a bird in a cage, ready to fly away at the first opportunity. It isn’t enough to fuck her and tell her she’s my wife. I need to make her mine in ways she will never question or doubt. I want her cage door open, but her mind content to stay right here with me.