Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
I’m back to gasping—this night is turning me into an expert gasper and my panting is top-notch, for sure. But how can I not do both? He’s so very hard and thick, and every nerve ending in my sex is alive and performing exceptionally well. Or this is another of those maybes…maybe it’s just him. I’m affected by Tyler, emotionally and physically, and the combination is explosive.
“Holy fuck, you feel good, Bella.”
He leans in and catches my lip with his teeth, nipping it to the point that I yelp but then his tongue is there, laving the ache away. At the same time, he eases out of me, and when I arch upward, trying to bring him back, he trusts hard. He’s all about my legs tonight, because he folds them into my chest and presses them to his.
His hands come down on my thighs and then he’s driving into me. God, yes. More. Deeper. It’s like he can hear what I’m saying in my head and it’s a whirlwind of just wild, hot, body-to-body sensations until he’s quaking, and I’m trembling again. Moments later, my legs are down with his body pressed to mine, and his hands framing my face.
“I love you, Bella.” He buries his face in my neck and says, “Don’t give up on me.”
I catch his hair in my fingers and pull his gaze to mine. “Give up on you? Why would I ever give up on you?”
His lips press together, and he rolls to his back, staring up at the ceiling. “My first reaction to trouble is to pull back.”
I lay there and digest those words. “Why?”
He looks over at me. “Because I don’t know what else to do, and it’s not a familiar or comfortable feeling.”
This answer twists me in knots. I sit up and stare down at him. “I can’t be in this relationship if your answer when things get hard is to split us up. Commitment isn’t easy for me. I saw what it did to my father, losing my mother. I’m scared enough.” I try to move away, and he pulls me down with him, on my side, and him on his, facing me, his leg draping over mine.
“You’re reading me wrong. I’m afraid of losing you forever, Bella. I’m afraid of you getting hurt. I can’t lose you.” His words are ripped from deep inside and etched in torment. “I can’t lose you,” he adds.
Realization and acceptance slide over me, and my hand goes to his face. He’s trying to control anything he can to protect me. “I’m not going anywhere. Not now. Not short-term. Not ever. We do this together, wherever your father’s will leads us. And then we live happily ever after.”
“Do you think that ever happens?”
“My parents—”
“Your mother—”
“It’s like the Luke Combs’ song my father told me just recently reminds him of my mother. Even if I knew the day we met you'd be the reason this heart breaks. Oh, I'd love you anyway. If he’d have known he’d lose her one day, he’d still have done it anyway. Nothing is for sure, Tyler. I said I’d never take the risk, but I am willing now, for you. Are you for me?”
“Every moment of my life, Bella.”
“Then no matter what happens, we have each other.”
Sometime later, we’re under the blankets with me resting on his chest, and I can hear him thinking. He still can’t rest. He’s still not okay. And that means we’re still not okay. I snuggle in closer to him and vow to hold on tighter, as tight as I have to, to get us to the other side of the hell his father has forced on him all his life.
Chapter Eight
Bella
I wake the next morning to a slice of light through the window, and Molly whining for a potty break. Tyler is also wrapped around me, unmoving and holding me so tightly, I can’t get up. “Tyler,” I murmur. “Tyler, the puppy.” I try to move, but he’s not having it.
He groans and says, “I got her,” and then he’s gone, rolling away from me and climbing out of bed. I twist around to watch him pull on his pajama bottoms and then kneel down to love on the puppy.
A moment later, the two are gone, leaving me with a warm sensation in my chest and a twist in my belly. He’d be a good father, but no one would ever convince him of such a thing. He believes he’s his father’s son, and therefore destined to be a monster. It’s why last night happened. He’s too easily convinced I’m better off without him, and I feel like there is nothing but time that will show him otherwise. We just need this mess with the will to end.
And I’d go to the courthouse and marry him today, and do so in a heartbeat if I could, just to end this mess with his inheritance now. I don’t need a big wedding or drawn-out engagement. But what either of us wants doesn’t matter. His father made sure to drag this process out with a forced extended engagement that can’t even be our own choice. And I’m not surprised one bit. He ensured lots of time for Tyler to feel unstable and unsettled.