Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
When I looked at Astrid across from me, her eyes were glued to mine, staring at me like I was a portrait or a vase of flowers on the counter. Looking at me like she somehow wouldn’t get caught. Her eyes were beautiful in the light of the chandelier and the white candle on the table, delicate but strong, a spark from the fire she used to have.
I refused to look away first. In some ways, I treated my women the way I treated my enemies, refusing to stand down for a moment, forcing them to back off because I wouldn’t give in. I did the same with her. Eye contact was intimate, something that could only be maintained between lovers or enemies. It required a quiet confidence most people didn’t possess. But she held my look longer than most, didn’t flinch at the intensity that was so palpable it was like smoke in the lungs. Then she caved, focusing her stare on her food.
“This is good,” Axel said with a mouth full of food. “But yours is better, baby.”
“You don’t have to compliment my food every time we eat, babe.” She spun her fork in her pasta.
“I mean it, though.”
She smirked. “I know.”
Axel pulled behind the gates and dropped us off. “We’re gonna go home and fuck. Hope you do the same.” He winked then rolled up the window before he pulled away.
Astrid gave an awkward smile as she stood there in a dress that left little to the imagination.
I paid top dollar for beautiful women to do whatever I wanted, but I didn’t consider those to be real interactions. They were choreographed and fake. Some pretended to like it, while others didn’t. It was like jerking off to porn, in my opinion.
But Astrid was real.
The heat between us was from a real fire that burned in our stares. The bumps on her arms were real, either from the cold or the tension. Her moans and tears from my girth plowing between her legs, all real.
It’d been a long time since I’d had something real, and fuck, I missed it.
She was the one to turn away first and approach the doorway.
I followed her, eyes dropping down to her ass in that tight dress, remembering how her cheeks felt against my palm. It’d been months since we were together, but the memory of her was so vivid, it felt like yesterday.
We entered the house and took the stairs to the top floor. The place used to house apartments, but when I brought the property, I gutted it and turned it into my home. The outside remained preserved, but the insides had been rearranged into a perfect place for a bachelor and his butler.
At the top of the stairs, she hesitated, her bedroom to the right. She lingered as she waited for an invitation, as if she was unsure what my ruthless stares across the table had meant. I’d eye-fucked her all night long, and she knew it.
My arm slid across the small of her back until my hand planted there, feeling her petite size in my big hand. I held my hand in place just at the top of her ass, and I wanted to slide it down to grab an ass cheek, but I was too distracted by the simple touch. It was the first time I’d touched her like this in god knew how long. It made me hesitate, made my breathing stop for a second or two.
She did the opposite. She inhaled a deep breath like she was about to run a mile. Her body turned into mine, spun in my arms, and then her cheek went into my chest. Her body pressed into mine, and she hugged me, her eyes closing when she felt me.
My arm tightened around her back, and I brought her tighter into me, staring down at her as I watched her hold on to me like her favorite teddy bear. Her eyes were closed, and she looked so peaceful, she could fall asleep.
I watched her for a while, watched her use me as a crutch. Then my other arm circled her, my body fully cocooning hers into a warm embrace. I squeezed her against me and dropped my chin until I could reach the top of her head and let it rest there. All the resentment and uncertainty I’d felt for her vanished in that moment. All I felt was the warmth between us, the way her chest rose with her little breaths, the way she leaned into me farther like she didn’t want to leave.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” she whispered into my chest, her arms squeezing my waist. “To be yours…and have you be mine.” Her arms loosened and she pulled away, but her hand found mine and she gave it a gentle tug toward my bedroom.