Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
“Oh god,” she moans. “More. Touch me more. Anywhere. Everywhere. Just…yes.”
I’m amazed I have the power in my fingertips to make her feel good, to make her come alive with just the briefest, smallest, fairly innocent touch. My cock fist bumps me. He’s damn proud of me, and I’m damn proud of myself too. Maybe I don’t have to have lots of experience, and perhaps I don’t have to be all alpha like the ones you read about in those books. I doubt a librarian would read those anyway.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Azalea moans as I kiss a path over her belly and lower, heading straight for the heralded patch of white lace.
Did I mention she also has a garter belt and sheer white stockings on? I can’t think about that right now, or my balls are going to kick up into my throat, and my dick isn’t going to obey any orders after that.
“What am I thinking?” I run my tongue along the lacey edge of her panties, a few inches below her belly button.
“You’re thinking I couldn’t possibly read smut, and you’re trying to judge yourself against all the super sexy book boyfriends out there. The thing about books is that they give people something to fantasize over. Something they might not want in real life, and that’s what makes it sexy. It’s something to take yourself out of your existential, boring, mundane world for a while and put you somewhere else. Well, I do read romance. I even read erotica. That being said, it’s not real, and I don’t expect it to be. You’re real, and I want to enjoy this. With you. I have no high standards to measure you against. Believe me. You already get a ten from me. I’m enjoying this because it’s you. I like that you’re not all like yeah, I’m going to dominate you, or yeah, I’m going to bark a bunch of commands that you should find sexy, or yeah, I’m going to tongue your bum and tan your ass red with my palm after.”
“Jesus. I didn’t know there was stuff like that in books.”
She laughs. “Oh, you’d be surprised.”
“I’m…I’m a little afraid now.”
“Don’t be. Seriously, I think this is sweet, and that’s what makes it sexy. You look like a god, but you’re a real person. That’s also incredibly sexy. I thought you were all ego when I met you, but then I realized you were just shy and uncomfortable, which was covering up the fact that you have this massive heart. That’s sexy. The fact that you’d go to bat any and every time for your granny and brothers and also your men? Sexy. Incredibly. Sexy. Did I mention you also look like a god? God-men are always assholes, but not you. I got the one anomaly, and it just so happens I was promised to him as a baby, so maybe what we’re doing right now is fate.”
I don’t intervene in the conversation. I don’t tell her that what we did this morning was fate. The marriage thing. Her leaving tomorrow? I don’t even want to think about it, and I’m not sure what’s up with that, so I don’t want to think about it.
Instead, I look Azalea right in the eye and tell her what’s making my heart swell. “Thank you.” That’s the two words that seem most fitting after she said all the nicest things in the world to me. I bend my head and let my words and my breath warm her. South of the border. “And now, I’m going to thank you properly.”
Bravo, my dick says. He fist-bumps me again. There you have it. I can also dirty talk. You get the dirt talker award for most improved. So, just…bravo.
CHAPTER 15
Azalea
I understand all the dark insecurities that Alden has locked away. I really do. Someone who was raised like that and who grew up the way he did has to have some lasting damage that I very much doubt any amount of counseling is going to help him out of it because it’s ingrained in the very essence of his being, his psyche, his mind, and his heart. I wish I could banish all of it, and what I said seems to have helped, so I’m grateful for that. I know I can’t just erase years of abuse, years of his father’s voice pounding through his head, and years of that man reaching out to wrap his hands around Alden’s throat, even from the grave, but I can be right here, right now. And right now, Alden isn’t thinking about that.
The fact that he thought he could mar me with his touch makes me want to cry, but again, he’s not thinking about that now. He’s moved past that, and if this wonderful, sexy beast of a man thinks he is anything but perfect, he had better reconfigure that notion and come to a different conclusion. Change the formula. Until it’s just us—me plus him—and there is no room for anything else.