Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
I was due at class in an hour—the one Elis had magically found his way into weeks after the beginning of the semester. I walked out of the registrar’s office after trying to drop that class, the fear of combusting after another minute with Elis Brooks all but oppressing me. But the university told me I needed the credit, and I wasn’t about to mess up my future for him.
“Wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Price?” His voice startled me from my thoughts.
“Brooks,” I grumped as I clutched my backpack to my chest and walked down the sidewalk. “You smell like paint. If you’re going to tag walls on the way to class, you may want to bring a change of clothes. Your dirty little secret will be blown for sure.”
“I’m not worried.” He grinned, catching my arm and spinning me softly into a limestone wall in a small alleyway crowded between buildings that led to the central courtyard. “I’d like to tag this.”
I focused on his large, tattooed hands framing my face against the wall behind me. His breath on my neck was beyond arousing. I cursed him inwardly for being so…alluring and myself for being pressed so close to his body yet again.
“Why can’t you leave me alone?” I found my voice.
“This wall. You know how hard it’d be for them to cover it? They can't paint it. It’s natural stone. They’d have to clean it. It’d take weeks and an entire crew.”
“Is that what you want to talk to me about? How you’re jonesing to vandalize property?”
He winked, and the right side of his lips turned up to form a lopsided smile. “You offering to let me vandalize you?”
I shove passed him. “Maybe I should report you for harassment so they’ll kick you out.”
He shrugged as he gripped my hand, stealing all the air from my lungs. “Hard to get kicked out when I don’t belong here in the first place.”
My heart ached at his words. Even now, the man had me wanting to make everything better for him. Devlynn Price, the dumb girl who always sacrificed her needs for those she cared about. “Why wouldn’t you belong here? Everyone deserves an education, even you.”
“Maybe I’m not a student. I slip into class to keep you on your toes, Price. Wanted to see what kind of education you’re getting in this fine institution of higher learning, and it turns out I have a right to be concerned. This place releases robots into the free market. Little money makers who push buttons and learn how to pass their wealth onto the next generation. You could learn way more by spending a few nights with me than half a decade wasted in this place.”
His lips dusted mine so briefly that I wasn’t sure he meant to do it. But this was Elis… He never did anything he didn’t mean.
“Stop playing with me, Elis. I’m a fucking person.”
“You’re more than just a person, Princess. A beautiful, sexy temptress who turns me into an animal.” He nipped at my earlobe, sending currents of electricity through my body.
His lips edged mine, hovering out of reach. He pressed me into the jagged slabs of limestone at my back, his breath washing over my skin and sending tingles erupting in every sinful place.
“You like pretending to be a good girl,” he whispered, a low lullaby caressing my ear. I missed how the low octave of his voice would make my skin tingle and the butterflies in my stomach flutter. “But we both know you want to be very, very bad.”
“What do you want from me, Elis.”
His palm cupped my neck, and the pad of one finger dusted across my cheekbone in tender strokes. He gazed into my eyes with such brooding intensity that he made me want to run away and have his babies.
I hated him for that.
“I want you to hang around me and get dirty.” His eyes flicked to my mouth once before he pressed his lips to mine.
His fingers wove into my hair as his hips swayed against mine. The cool limestone at my back did nothing to quell the inferno he created inside me.
He nipped around the edge of my lips, his tongue trailing the seam as small breaths gasped past my lips. His tongue traveled inside again, searching me out slower this time, his hands crawling my neck and sending razor-edged goose bumps around my skin.
“You make me crazy, Price.” His chilly words against my hot lips made my heartbeat triple and beat in a chaotic rhythm. “But against my better judgment, I can’t get enough of you.”
Chapter 13
Elis
She tasted like my bitter past and my hopeful future. I couldn’t get enough of her lips or how she felt wrapped in my arms. All those years hurled back at me, the memory of her now a reality.