Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Fuck, I could not get out of there fast enough.
“I see how you look at me.” When Julian’s voice rang out in the hollow space, I froze in place.
When he didn’t expound, I whirled around to glare at him. “And how is that?”
He folded his arms. “The same way I look at you.”
I motioned between us. “Are we playing games here?”
“Guess so, since you hightailed it down here, then never actually said what was on your mind.”
“I just…” My shoulders slumped. “I wasn’t sure if you…”
“If I was attracted to you too?”
My head dipped, and suddenly I was looking at my toes like some shy kid. “Yeah, that.”
“You’re not imagining it, Kerry,” he said in a soothing tone, but it did nothing to calm the butterflies beating a steady rhythm in my stomach. “I know this is tricky. You’re letting me stay on your farm while I remodel this silo, and I don’t want to overstep or make you feel uncomfortable.”
“Oh, I’m uncomfortable all right.” I shifted on my feet, avoiding shifting that other part of me that was suddenly making my jeans uncomfortable. “For all the reasons you could imagine.”
When he smirked, I fleetingly returned his smile before I sobered again.
“It’s just that I can’t…” I briefly screwed my eyes shut. “I can’t hurt her again.”
“By being with a guy?” he asked, confusion lining his features.
“That ship has sailed.” I shook my head. “By being with family.”
He took a step toward me. “We’re not family, not by blood or marriage.”
“You know what I mean.” My eyes landed on his. “Sienna is your cousin, and I was married to her, and hell if that doesn’t suck because if I had met you someplace else, anywhere else…”
He arched a brow. “We’d already be banging each other?”
“Maybe.” I couldn’t help grinning at the idea even as my cheeks heated up. “Have you ever… I assume you’ve been with other…”
“Men?” He nodded. “You could only imagine the shit we got up to on long nights in the desert. Competitions, for example. The one where you deep throat bananas always gave them away, and then before you knew it, one of you was on your knees somewhere away from the barracks or sometimes meeting up during a weekend pass.”
“Fuck,” I said in a hoarse voice. “The visual alone is killing me.”
We did more of that staring thing, and then I forced my legs to move to the door. I came here to say my piece, so it was time for me to go before this turned into something else.
“So, I’ll see you at dinner—”
“I admire that about you,” he said, and I paused at the door. “How you can compartmentalize that part of yourself. But I’m not sure ignoring this is the right answer. You told me that one night that—”
“I don’t ignore it,” I cut him off, twisting to meet his eyes again. “I, uh, get my needs met when I need to.”
“I see the need in your eyes right the fuck now. And I’m standing right in front of you.” The passion in his voice threw me, like his veil of control around me was slipping. I watched him closely as his Adam’s apple bobbed against his throat. “If we keep doing this back-and-forth thing, I might just explode right here on the—”
“Goddamn it.” Suddenly that thin layer of resistance broke apart inside me. My legs ate up the distance between us, and I hemmed him in against the wall, firmly lifting his wrists above him with one hand and burying my nose against his throat. And there it was—the warm skin and his unique scent.
Julian sighed like the intimate position I had him in was everything he needed, and the satisfaction of that hit me square in my gut.
I trailed my lips against the underside of his jaw, then over to his ear as he shivered and thrust his hips, trying to make contact. When I brushed my chin against his bicep, then buried my face in the wiry hair under his arm, I finally got that deep, rewarding whiff of him I’d been searching for. The mixed scent of wood and spice and sweat made my cock instantly hard. Julian was all man, and knowing that I was essentially owning this, owning exactly who I wanted to be close to, was empowering. “Fuck, the way you smell is such a turn-on.”
He whimpered. Actually whimpered.
My gaze zeroed in on that plump red mouth I’d wanted a taste of for weeks.
I struggled, couldn’t hold myself back for one more goddamned minute, my restraint snapping. So I went for it, feathering my lips against one corner of his mouth, then the other, savoring the scrape of his scruff against mine.
Julian inhaled sharply, probably not expecting me to give in, and hell, I couldn’t even believe I’d allowed myself to—at least for this brief moment. One I wouldn’t soon forget.