Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76172 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76172 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Is it because it’s a little taboo? Because she’s forbidden? Is it because doing something so bad would feel so good?
I shake my head, realizing it has nothing to do with any of that. My attraction to her has nothing to do with the devious side of me, that little devil voice in my head shoving me toward temptation.
It’s her, a hundred percent. There’s just something about Devyn Malloy that speaks to me on a molecular level. It tells me that avoiding her will be impossible, no matter how hard I try.
“Devyn,” I whisper, urging her to speak.
“Don’t,” she says, pressing her palm to my chest.
The muscles jump under her hand, drawing her eyes there. I swear the slow look down and the even slower look back up send tendrils of fire through every inch of my body.
I lick my lips, wanting to taste every damn inch of her body.
“Let me get this out before I lose the nerve.” She clears her throat, a nervous gesture that makes me want to do the same. “I want to take you up on your offer. I think a date would be nice.”
“It was your offer,” I argue. “Well, it was your idea first.”
“Are we really going to argue semantics right now?” Her fingers flex over my shirt, the warmth of her hand somehow settling deeper inside of me.
I shake my head, thinking that this woman could tell me to do anything right now, and I’d probably do it with a smile.
“Are you not going to answer me?”
I blink down at her, my mind racing to try and remember the question she asked. It takes longer than it should, but I could easily blame her proximity for why my brain seems to have fried.
I almost tell her no. The reasons I turned her down yesterday still stand, but I know how big of a damn mistake that would be. She’s offering me a do-over, and I’ll be damned if I walk away again. I have no doubt she’d never be this vulnerable with me again.
But I have to consider what it means to say yes as well.
I know I’m physically attracted to her. The girl is smoking fucking hot, and every single guy in the room tonight knows it too. Is the connection purely physical? Am I just in need of getting laid? Is it because I want to hold on to that connection I lost with Vaughn all those years ago? If she were a different person, having no connection to my past, would I still feel the same way?
I’d never hurt her just to get her in bed. I’m not that kind of guy, but what if it doesn’t work out? What if I get to know her, and we aren’t as compatible as my body is insisting that we are?
“I’d like that,” I finally manage.
“You’d like to answer me?”
“I’d like to take you on a date.”
Her shoulders relax some, the tension in them fading away.
“I won’t have time to go out anytime soon,” she says, looking nervous again as if I’d tell her now or never. “I have a lot of stuff being delivered tomorrow, and I have to get things setup. I took a million more orders tonight, and I don’t know if I’ll even have time to sleep for the next several weeks much less have time to go out and—”
I press my finger to her lips, hushing her.
I swear on everything holy if she keeps looking up at me the way she is, we’ll end up in my bed on the other side of the door we’re standing near.
“I’ll be ready when you have time.”
Fuck if I’m not ready for a hundred different things right now, but I can’t take this where my body is insisting it goes. My prayer, deep down, is that we go out and discover we aren’t at all compatible. Acting on attraction is one thing, and I’m strong enough to fight that part of it, but it would be entirely less messy if we discovered this wouldn’t work out between us. Her parents hate me enough already.
“I want to go soon, but I also have all these other obligations,” she continues against the press of my finger.
“It can wait,” I assure her, part of me hoping the attraction fades between now and when her availability opens up.
“I’m trying to be mature about—”
“Devyn—”
“I don’t want you to think—”
Even with the raging voice in my head telling me to take a step back, I pull my finger from her lips and replace it with my mouth.
The sound of her surprised gasp takes me from semi to full hard-on in a split second. Jesus, if I’m not the most wishy-washy fucking man on earth right now.
My reaction to her is borderline primal. I want to lift her up and pull her body against mine. I want to unzip my jeans and slip my cock between the lips of her pussy and push inside of her right here in the fucking hallway. I want to watch her eyes roll into the back of her head all the while her face contorts in the unavoidable pain of seating myself fully inside of her.