Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 45045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
But power and chemistry weren’t the only things for me to appreciate.
Eli had always been a large guy with a big frame, and he’d had more than enough muscle the night they’d taken him away. Still, he’d gotten bigger while locked up. Not ginormous and bloated.
Just very solid.
It took a special kind of guy to pull off muscles like that without intimidating a girl, I realized. Eli could hold me down and do whatever the hell he wanted with me, but I’d never worried about that with him.
Probably because, deep down inside, I knew he cared about me as a person and not just getting in my pants.
He’d continued the weightlifting once he got back. Though now, he liked to mix his workouts up a bit more, just because he could. So far, he’d gone snowboarding, rafting, hiking… Fucking quite a bit, too. Or so I’d heard. Not that I’d listen to gossip like that deliberately, but sometimes people just said things in public, and it wasn’t like I could turn off my ears.
Eli ended the kiss, pulling away as I gave his lip a lingering suck. Then he caught my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze head-on. His eyes were intense. Almost too intense.
He was hungry, I realized. And not the kind of hungry you could fix with chicken nuggets.
“Five years,” he said, shifting his left leg so that it slid down between mine, spreading my legs wide beneath him. “I sat in that fucking prison cell for five years, and there wasn’t a single day that I didn’t regret leaving you. Not just leaving the party or getting myself wrapped up in something so much bigger than I could possibly understand at that age, but leaving you. I missed the hell out of that mouth of yours.”
“How come you missed me?” I said, the words painful but honest. “I bullied you. Constantly. I couldn’t see it through an adult’s perspective before. Now I can, and I’m not okay with what I did to you.”
Eli pushed his thigh deep between my legs, then started rubbing it back and forth against me. It felt incredible, yet it wasn’t quite enough to be satisfying. Just unspeakably distracting. I squirmed beneath him, searching for a spot with just a bit more friction. Eli let out a low laugh, and I realized this wasn’t just sex for him.
It was a sensual kind of revenge.
He could torture me for hours like this, bringing me closer to the edge or holding me back, depending on his whims. I tried pushing up and into him with my hips. I just needed a little more—
“So, you want to know why I don’t hate you,” Eli said, his voice low and husky. I waited, but he took his time, brushing his lips against my cheek. Fuck. I was supposed to be listening to him and owning everything I’d done wrong.
“Okay,” I said, trying to focus. It wasn’t easy. Every time his thigh drifted over my clit, I sort of lost track of who I was for a moment.
“Hallies Falls is a small town,” he said. He’d started kissing softly along my jawline at the same time, which wasn’t particularly helpful. Although I hadn’t gotten the impression that being helpful was his goal.
“Yeah, I’m fairly sure we all know how small it is,” I said, wondering where he was going with this.
“So, when I got here, everyone knew why Gus had taken me in,” he said, shifting his hand to my breast. His fingers splayed wide and wrapped around it, giving me a gentle squeeze. “The shit my mom got into was all over the news. I was supposed to be a victim, whether I felt like one or not. The kids at school had to pretend we were friends, even when we hated each other. And all the teachers were so busy feeling sorry for me that none of them bothered to teach me. I was young, but I wasn’t stupid. None of them gave a shit about me.”
“Wait,” I said, not wanting to challenge him, but what he said didn’t add up. “You’d already been to first grade when you moved in with Gus. I remember because you were two years older than me, but only one year ahead. They held you back.”
“That didn’t actually happen,” Eli said, pausing to trace my ear lobe with his tongue. “Someone told me to lie about it. Said it would make me fit in better than admitting I’d never been to school. They were wrong.”
He gave my ear a sharp nip with his teeth, and I sighed. Couldn’t quite decide if that counted as pain or pleasure. Maybe something in the middle.
“So, suddenly, I was in this weird little town where I didn’t know anyone. Not even my own uncle. And no matter what I did, everyone treated me like I was weak—”