Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I used to love attaching nipple clamps to them, then taking them off long minutes later and teasing them with different things—a feather, a leather riding crop, ice cubes, a vibrator just to see how she responded.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice broke into my contemplation of the ass that used to be mine. “Earth to PD.”
I turned my eyes to Naomi, and my cock, which had been rock hard only moments before, instantly lost some of its eagerness.
Naomi was a student paramedic and a woman that was starting to get on my last nerve.
“Yeah?” I asked, trying to contain my annoyance.
“You okay?” she asked softly.
I nodded.
“I am,” I lied.
I wasn’t okay.
The one woman who still had the power to bring me to my knees, even though she didn’t know it, had walked into the same diner as me.
And I hadn’t been able to keep my eyes off her since.
In fact, this was the first time in over a year that we’d been in such close proximity.
Seems I still had absolutely no control where July Roxanne Amsel was concerned.
Something that was proven to me time and time again. Each and every time she came within my line of sight, my will-power disintegrated.
“Your eyes are all weird,” she said. “Are you running a fever?”
She placed her hand on my cheek, and I instantly recoiled from her touch.
Her eyes flashed with hurt, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care much.
I’d tried, I really did, but I couldn’t find that spark I needed with her.
Mainly because that spark already belonged to July, and I highly doubted that I’d ever be able to feel it for anyone besides her.
The one woman I couldn’t have.
A woman who hated my job. Hated what I considered to be my calling in life, my passion.
A woman that made me feel like shit each and every time I wanted to spend time with friends, left to be on shift, or picked up a SWAT call.
You know why she did. Her brother was shot because he was a cop, and she didn’t know if he’d live for nearly a week. She has trouble with dangerous jobs. Why are you surprised about that?
Naomi bumped me, bringing me out of my contemplation of July’s actions.
“You paid up?” I asked Naomi.
Naomi’s eyes, looking from between me and July, went wide, and then closed down as understanding dawned.
July didn’t see the look, though, seeing as she had her nose buried in a damned book like she always did.
I could see the tears dripping from her chin, though.
Mainly because I was watching her breasts rise and fall in that thing she called a shirt.
Her tiny breasts heaving with her fight to hold back her tears.
I couldn’t help what I did next.
Her tears were my undoing. They always were.
It’s why I caved whenever she cried, losing my ability to stay mad.
Those tears dried up after our relationship ended, as far as I could tell, leaving the woman before me now, a hollow version of her former self.
My legs carried me to her table, and I couldn’t help but grab her chin with three fingertips and turn her head to face mine, and my breath caught at seeing those tears leaking from her eyes.
My gaze stayed locked with hers.
Those beautiful pale blue eyes of hers swimming with tears had my heart thumping erratically in my chest.
“Stop,” I demanded.
She swallowed, but the tears that had been flowing just poured out of her eyes faster.
“Get away from her,” Des snarled from behind me. “Stop touching her and get out of here before there’s a scene.”
I swept my thumb over her cheek, wiping away the tears.
But new tears replaced them just as fast, and I stopped.
“Stop,” I ordered again.
Her breath caught, and the tears slowed.
I nodded my head.
“Good girl.”
Her eyes closed, and I let go of her chin.
“Don’t cry,” I murmured.
She shook her head, and I was barely able to stop myself from demanding that she ‘use her words.’
That was one of the challenges of being with July.
When she got upset, she stopped talking.
It wasn’t something I understood, either. I’d never gotten her to tell me why she’d clam up like that—losing the ability to use her words.
It’d been on my to-do list to find out why, but we’d never made it that far.
We fell in love, hard and fast, and we’d spent most of our time fucking like bunnies when we weren’t doing this or that. There was never any time for talking in the six months we’d had together.
And I regretted that greatly.
Especially since I was wishing she would say something instead of just shutting down like she always did.
When she opened her eyes once again, they were clear of tears; the only evidence that she’d been crying were the tracks that were running down her cheeks.
“Thank you,” I whispered.