Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Pink washes over her cheeks. “Nothing was missing. You felt so good. It was just…” Tentatively, she traces her fingers along my jaw, and her breath shudders when I turn my head to press a kiss into her palm. “I kept wanting you to take me like you used to. In the cabin.”
I can’t be hearing that right. “When I used you as a fuckhole?”
Her blush deepens, but she nods. “Because I know you’re a good man. But you needed me so much, you crossed that line into bad. Didn’t you?”
“I crossed a hell of a line. One I shouldn’t have.”
“Why? I said you could.” She bites her lip, her eyes searching mine. “You think that makes you the same as Tusk?”
Thinking he was owed something. “Pretty fucking close, yeah.”
“You’re not. The difference there is that I wanted you, too. And if I’d said no instead of yes, would you have stopped?”
“In an instant. But—”
“Because you’re a good man,” she says softly. “Did you ever cross that line with anyone else? Would you ever?”
Fuck, she’s killing me. “No.”
“So it was just me.”
“Yeah.”
“You think I don’t know that?” She cups my face in her warm hands. “You think it wasn’t thrilling to be wanted like that, knowing you were breaking all your own rules? Maybe that’s my own bad coming out, too.”
“No, angel,” I say gruffly. “There’s not a bit of bad in you.”
“You sure? Because I liked you crossing that line. I liked you taking me as if you intended to collect what you were owed. All because you needed me so much.” She looks suddenly vulnerable, her emerald eyes huge and dark. “Do you still?”
Need her as much as I did then? Hell no.
I need her more than I ever have.
“You have no fucking idea, angel,” I tell her, my voice roughening with every word. “I’ll cross every goddamn line to have you. To take what’s mine. You want me to show you?”
Maxine’s breath shudders as she nods, her eyes closing in relief—as if she wasn’t certain what my answer to needing her would be.
So I’ll make sure there isn’t any doubt left.
“Go put on that wedding dress, then.” I squeeze her ass before letting her go. “And I’ll fuck you like I should have when I carried you in.”
She kisses me hard before scrambling off my lap and snatching the dress from the closet. After coming, my dick’s softened up some, but I ain’t worried about that. By the time I’m ready to get into her again, I’ll be aching just as much as I ever was. Maybe more. Because Maxine, god help me…she’s just so damn sweet. So damn beautiful as she tosses me a blushing look before heading into bathroom.
I head over, bracing my hands on the doorframe so I’ll be the first thing my wife sees when she comes out again. She must not have done more than clean up a bit, because in no time at all, that door swings open and she’s there in front of me, wearing a silky white dress that I barely even see because the woman in it is such a vision.
Christing hell, she’s stunning. It thumps me right in the chest how gorgeous my bride is, looking up at me with her green eyes alight with anticipation.
“You’re so fucking pretty, Maxine,” I tell her huskily. “Maybe I ought to put that tux back on, too.”
She shakes her head, her fingers tucking into the waist of my jeans—which I zipped up but didn’t do much more in the way of fastening. “This suits you better,” she says softly.
So it does. But not as well as having this woman against me.
Now that I know she loves it when I hold her close, I snake my arm around her waist and draw her in tight. “Kiss me again like you did after they said ‘man and wife.’”
With a delighted laugh, she throws her arms around my neck and rises onto her toes. That didn’t happen in the chapel, but the happiness shining from her face is the same. So is the painful clench in my chest as I claim her mouth, long and slow and sweet. But the pain before came from believing that kiss was the only time I’d ever be touching her again. Now the ache comes from all the hope building up until my heart’s as tight and as full as it’s ever been—along with a hefty punch of terror, fearing that I might fuck this up and lose her.
So I’ll give her a whole load of reasons to stay.
I swing her up into my arms, kissing her all the way to the bed. There I lay her down amid the scattered rose petals, then lean in with my hands beside her shoulders and my body braced over hers. “You like me needing you, girl? You like knowing you’re the only woman in the whole fucking world I can imagine ever touching again?”