Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 82480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82480 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Outside, the light was draining from the sky, and she found herself both dreading the night… and becoming excited by its approach.
Which was a weird straddle for her mood. But Bruce wasn’t in custody yet, and all she could do was trust in what Detective Sulley had promised her—namely that the guy would be arrested as soon as they went to his place. Hopefully everything went well with that.
And meanwhile, she was ready to see Darius.
Upstairs, in her bedroom, she quickly changed out of her work clothes and had a shower. After moisturizing her legs and her face, she blow-dried her hair. As she put down the Conair, things seemed flyaway-ish, so she pumped a little hair spray on the frizz and ran her palms over the top to flatten things.
Clothes… she needed to get dressed in something that was…
Well, easily removable.
At a quarter to eight, she was back down in her kitchen, and as the darkness bled through the glass slider, her anxiety returned to the forefront. The idea that Bruce had done something unthinkable to Charlie Byrnes was—
Knock. Knock. Knock.
As Anne jumped up from her little table, she had a thought that she hadn’t been aware of having taken a seat. With a pounding heart, she looked to the sliding glass door, and when she didn’t see anything out on her shallow back porch, she glanced toward her living room—
“Anne?” came the muffled voice from down there. “It’s me.”
She ran so fast for the front door that she skidded on the hall throw rug and hit the panels with a bang. Her hands were inefficient as they skipped around the dead bolt, but soon enough, she had things opened.
Andtherehewasstandingonherdoorstep.
It felt like a lifetime since she’d seen Darius—and maybe it was the Charlie thing, maybe it was the Bruce thing… maybe it was that she’d been missing him all day long… whatever the reason, she leaped at the man. And what do you know, he caught her as if he were in the throes of the same kind of reunion she was.
Sweeping her off her feet, Darius stepped over the threshold and kicked the door shut as he kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her some more.
When he finally separated their lips, they were both breathing hard. “Where’s your bedroom?”
“Upstairs,” she groaned.
With a powerful surge, he swung her up into his arms and took the steps two at a time, carrying her as though she didn’t weigh a thing. And given that she had only two bedrooms, and was using the second as an office and sewing station, he took the correct left and went directly into her private space.
Kicking the second door of the night shut, he laid her out on her mattress. “Anne, I need you—”
“Come here—”
The instant their mouths fused once again, their bodies did the same, her breasts up against his chest, their hips grinding together, his erection pressing into her lower belly through their clothes.
When he eventually sat up, she was worried he was putting the brakes on things, but it turned out it was just to wrench his leather jacket off. And as he tossed the heavy folds, the thing landed with a thud, like there were weights in it—but then she didn’t wonder about what kind of weapons had hit her floor because he was taking off his shirt.
She did the same with her own, pulling the soft sweater over her head.
“Anne…” he said as he looked at her bare breasts.
Yup, there had been no way she was wasting time with a stupid bra.
Lowering her lids, she stared up at him through her lashes. “I figured why bother, you know?”
“Amen to that.”
He was on her a split second later, ravishing her with his mouth, sucking on her nipples, stroking her from shoulder to hip. In return, she arched against him and opened her legs—
Anne cried out his name as she felt one of his hands ride up her inner thigh and cup her sex. Rubbing herself against his palm, clamping her legs together, she felt like she was melting from the inside out, her blood running hot and desperate. She told herself the passion was proof that this was the right man, finally—and then she wasn’t thinking about anything other than getting completely naked.
“Is this too fast?” he grunted as he went for the fastening on her jeans.
“No.” She pulled at his shoulders. Grabbed at his back. “No—”
In the recesses of her mind, something registered, something that she knew she should have paid attention to. But then it was gone as he started to take off those Levi’s of hers. The next thing Anne was aware of, they were both naked and he was lying on top of her, his erection thick and hard, off to the side. As he smoothed her hair back, his eyes roamed her face.