Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
She lifted her fork and prodded it in Cody’s direction. “You be sure to keep it on her.”
Cody grinned. “I plan to.”
“Your mom was right…you’re nothing but trouble,” I told Cody where I stood leaned against the island while he finished the dishes from our dinner and the dessert Lolly and Maddie had eaten, finally getting him alone after we’d tucked Maddie into bed and Lolly had retreated to her room. “I can’t believe you said that in front of my grandmother.”
He sent me a smirk from over his shoulder as he placed the last dish into the dishwasher. “You can’t believe it, huh?”
“Okay, I can because like I said, you are nothing but trouble.”
“You don’t seem to mind all that much.” Suggestion wound into his teasing tone, though those golden eyes raked me from head to toe, devouring me where he stood.
I clung to the counter behind me. “I guess I don’t.”
Turning around, he grabbed a towel and dried off his hands, never looking away from me as he tossed it to the counter and he rumbled, “Good because I’m ready for my favorite thing.”
“What’s that?” It quivered out of me.
“You.”
He came for me, the ground trembling with each big step. His expression vacillated between that easy arrogance and the hunger that rippled through his muscles.
He diverted course and ducked into the refrigerator to pull out the big bowl of strawberry shortcake he’d already prepared, tucked the can of whipped cream under his arm, then grabbed a spoon.
I started to move around to the stools before his command hit me from behind. “Think what I have planned for you needs to take place behind closed doors in your room, darlin’.”
A needy shiver rolled down my spine. He hadn’t even touched me, but I already was shaking.
The ground kept rolling as he followed me into my room, and chills lifted on my nape as he walked right behind me, his breaths brushing across the bare skin of my shoulders and my exposed neck since I was wearing a sundress, and my hair was in a braid that I’d twisted into a halo on top of my head.
He dipped in and pressed his lips to the sensitive juncture where my neck met my shoulder. “Close that door and lock it.”
“You’re awful bossy tonight.” I went for flirty. A tease when I was positively vibrating with need.
One look from this man and I was already coming undone.
“You might call it bossy, but the only thing on my agenda tonight is making you feel good. Cherished the way you are. Can’t help it if I’m going to derive a whole ton of pleasure from it for myself.”
I could feel his smile against my skin, and I shifted to shut and lock the door as he walked the rest of the way into the room. He set the bowl and whipped cream on the nightstand before he turned around to look at me through the muted light of the room.
A shockwave slammed me.
Energy bounding and inciting, dense as the tension curled through the space, climbing the walls and crawling the floor and twining up through the center of me to tie me in knots.
The power of this man standing there, rippling strength and volatility.
Radiating that sweetness, too, that goodness that gushed out of him like a river. The man so different than I’d conformed myself into believing.
When I’d stowed him away as a bad memory.
He wavered for a moment, his intensity blazing in the room. “Can’t tell you what it meant to have you at my mother’s house today, Hailey. That’s a sacred place to me. Never thought I’d want to bring someone there. Make them a part of it. And that’s exactly where I want you to be.”
“And I was afraid of going there because I was worried I might want to stay.”
“That’s what I want, Hailey. I want you there. With me. Not sure I can imagine my life without you in it anymore.”
The truth of what we’d become tremored around us. A threat that both of us were precariously perched on the edge. This heart so close to no longer belonging to me.
“Come here, Shortcake…let me show you just what you mean. Going to make you feel so good tonight…and just like I promised Lolly, I don’t plan to ever stop.”
There was no hesitation.
I moved.
Drawn to him in an inexplicable way. The way I’d always been. No control over the lure that pulled and persuaded.
He stretched out a long arm and dragged the chair from the small desk that sat against the wall between the room and the bathroom, and he turned it out to face me.
“Sit.”
I complied, no reserves, no restraint.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t shaking like an old washing machine that had been set off-kilter.
Balance lost.
Cody dropped to his knees in front of me.