Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
But when they showed me the picture of Starla…
“We can’t tell Sergio and Eden. They’ll lose their minds, Timeo,” she whispers.
I trace her chin. “I know, baby. But you and I are gonna have to keep a few secrets, aren’t we?”
She can’t continue doing this. She’s gonna have to shut it down.
But when my mouth meets hers in a sigh, we lose track of time and place. My heart beats along with hers, and I return to where I was. I wanted to punish her for withholding this from me, but I know I haven’t given her space to really trust me. Not yet.
I will.
“I want you,” I whisper in her ear. “And I don’t care anymore what anyone else thinks.”
“What changed?” she whispers back, her arms around my neck.
“I wanted to protect you.” I hold her against me and relish the warm feel of her body against mine. “But I know, baby. I’ll protect you no matter the cost. The closer I keep you, the better.”
“I… know how we can get even closer. Oh, God. Timeo!”
The panic in her voice makes me stiffen. My gun’s in my hand before I realize she’s pointing at my arm.
“You’re bleeding!”
I’m so relieved I almost laugh. “It’s a scratch. Jesus, baby, I thought it was something serious.”
“Oh my God,” she repeats, pushing herself off my lap. I want to reach out to her and yank her back, but I let her go.
For now.
“Here I am, all but throwing myself at you, and you’re injured.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m fine. Jesus.”
“You’re not! You’re bleeding!” Reaching for me, her brows draw together adorably. “Let me see.”
I let her see.
She stares at the wounds on my arms and neck.
I let her.
I’m not hiding from her anymore.
“I need a bigger gun,” she murmurs. Starla’s gaze turns icy. “If I ever get my hands on the men that did this to you—”
“You’ll fucking run the other way,” I growl. “Leave it, Starla, I’m fine.”
Tears well in her eyes as she lifts my tee and tosses it. It drapes unceremoniously over a couple of computer monitors in a lazy, messy, heart-shaped loop, like a physical sign we’re leaving logic behind and finally listening to our hearts. “I can’t change a lot of things, Timeo. So please.” Bending down, she brushes her lips against one particularly angry bruise. “Let me have this. I hate that anyone hurt you. I want to take care of you.”
I cup the back of her head and bring her mouth to mine in a kiss that can only be described as a claiming. I want to brand her, to mark her as mine, so that no one will ever question that Starla is woven into the fabric of my very being.
I kiss her until she’s slumped against me, any fear she has of hurting me gone again. Until her body’s flush against mine and her cheeks are blushing pink. I cup her ass and she squeals when I tug her closer to me.
I hold her to me with one arm and clear the desk with the other, haphazardly shoving all the equipment into one messy bunch.
Wordlessly, I lift her to stand in front of me. With her gaze fixed on mine, I strip off her clothes down to her panties and toss everything to the floor.
“Jesus, Starla,” I say, as I stroke the length of her body. I cup her bare pussy in my palm and lean in to drag my tongue along the hardened buds of her nipples. “I’d have to kill anyone who saw you dressed like this. Tell me you’re fully clothed in those fucking videos, or I swear to fucking God I’ll take my belt to your ass.”
“I’m clothed,” she breathes, bracing against me as I tweak her nipples between my thumb and forefinger. “But I’d be game to try that belt sometime…”
I growl and lift her onto the desk. There’s so little to the panties it’s an easy job to push them aside. I lean in and breathe the sweet, seductive smell of her arousal.
“Fuckkk.”
I want to eat her out until she screams my name. Fuck her until she’s breathless and sated, then hold her to me until she falls asleep.
I want to bring us to that place of intimacy we’ve both craved, the place where we begin and end with each other.
“Touch your nipples,” I say in a low rasp. “Now.”
I love the way she melts and bites her lip as she obeys me. A thrill ripples down my spine as she tenderly touches her breasts, her perfect pink nipples taut beneath her fingers.
Our eyes lock as I reach between her legs, press my thumbs to her inner thighs. She stifles a whimper when I slide my thumbs over her sex. I draw lazy circles and her back arches.
“Oh, God,” she whimpers. She swallows hard, her lips slightly parted. I press the fabric against her clit and continue to circle, watching her reactions. She’s so close, so on the edge, with only a few strokes she’s there. Her body writhing beneath my hands, her perfect nipples grasped between her fingers. I relish the feel of her body spasming in ecstasy and imagine what it would be like if it were me inside her that brought her to climax.