Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
My body trembled as he placed me on the soft, velvety leather. The man so tall. Obliterating reason and sight.
My nerves scattered when he slowly eased down onto his knees, and he planted his hands on either side of me as he leaned forward.
His devastatingly beautiful face was an inch away, and I stretched out a trembling hand and set it on his cheek. Heat blistered at the contact, a fire that flashed through my system. The words were craggy when I spoke. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, Charleigh.” His voice was gruff as ever. Low in the room, as if we weren’t alone and we were trying to keep from waking someone.
Energy glinted, tying the oxygen in knots that I had to squeeze in and out of my lungs.
“Why not?”
His head barely shook. “Because this is what I do.”
“What? Rescue damsels in distress?” I tried to play it a tease, but the air was too heavy for any lightness to stick.
His scoff was soft. “You’re no damsel in distress, fighting me every step of the way.”
“It’s all I’ve ever known how to do.”
River covered my hand that still rested on his cheek with his and pressed it closer. “Going to show you that you don’t have to do that anymore. You don’t have to run. You don’t have to be afraid. You can stand in the beauty of who you are. And you, Charleigh Lowe, are the epitome of beauty. Inside and out. Everything about you makes me want to lose my mind. Gonna drive me out of my head, Little Runner.”
My spirit shuddered in strained affection. In the feeling that this man summoned in me. He’d stoked the ashes and brought long-dead pieces to life.
I wanted to revel in them forever.
“I think you’re the one who’s made me lose mine. I still can’t believe I’m here. That I spent tonight with you and your family.”
The threat of a smirk hinted at the edge of his mouth. “If you talk to Nolan, he’d insist you were a part of that, too.”
Family.
I was shocked he would even mention it.
“But we know that can’t be, don’t we?” My fingertips were still brushing his face, gliding over the scruff that lined his sharp jaw.
“How about we don’t talk about me having to let you go and instead focus on this.”
“And what is this?” It was a breath.
“It’s me showing you that you are in control. Me showing you that you deserve pleasure. Me erasing that motherfucker from your being and writing myself on it instead. Gonna mark myself on you as deep as that tat on your arm. Permanently. Make you remember exactly what you want. What you need.”
Need raced through my body. “I’m afraid you’re going to break me.”
He brushed the pad of his thumb over my lips. On instinct, my tongue stroked out to lick it.
His eyes flamed as he released a surprised growl that reverberated through the room, and he pressed his thumb into my mouth.
I sucked, and a moan got free.
A storm roared in his gaze before arrogance kicked up at the edge of his mouth. “Nah, I’m not going to break you, Charleigh, I’m just going to ruin you for anyone else.”
The man rose higher on his knees as I sank deeper into the couch cushions.
Anticipation made my limbs heavy. Laden with want.
“Did you know how fuckin’ bad I wanted you when you came through the door of my shop that first night?” he asked. “Did you know how badly I wanted to peel you out of your clothes and take you right on my chair? I’ve spent weeks fucking my hand to thoughts of you. Thinkin’ about every way that I’m going to have you.”
The vision of it blazed through my mind, and my thighs quivered as I was rushed with a current of desire.
He inhaled heavily as if he smelled it coming off me, and he pulled his thumb from my mouth and ran it over my lips, coating them with my saliva.
My throat went dry, but still, I managed to force out, “I haven’t wanted anyone to touch me in years, for so long that I’d forgotten what it’s like. And my breath was gone the second you came to stand in the doorway to your station. Though it might have had something to do with the way you terrified me, too.”
River’s expression went predatory. “You should probably still be scared.”
“Part of me is. Of this. Of what you make me feel.”
His eyes turned to pitch, greed dancing in their depths, prancing with the shadows that played on the walls. His thumb moved to my jaw as the rest of his fingers splayed out to hold me by the side of the neck.
My pulse beat frantically against his touch.
“I don’t let my mind go there when I’m tattooing, not ever, and there you were, making me break every rule I’ve ever set, and I’ve been wanting to break them ever since.”