Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
He leaned forward, his lips just barely brushing mine. I sighed softly, losing myself in him, in his sweet words. “Let me breathe life into you, beautiful.”
With that, he firmly pressed our lips together in the sweetest kiss I’d ever had.
All of those shattered pieces of my soul? They glowed.
Christian popped back into the back office with a pizza and a bottle of soda. “I ordered food. Axel is probably going to be a while,” he informed me. “Hungry?”
My stomach rumbled on cue, answering for me. He grinned. “Thought you would be.” He dragged one of the tables over to us and placed the pizza on it. He then went to one of the cabinets and pulled down two plastic cups. I watched as he took a seat back on the couch next to me, pouring soda into both cups. “Here, beautiful,” he said, handing me the cup.
I blushed. He ran his eyes over me. “Fucking gorgeous,” he whispered more to himself than to me, but I heard nonetheless, and my cheeks burned even hotter.
He opened the pizza box. It was a pepperoni pizza, and I moaned before I could stop myself. “Ooh, my favorite,” I whispered to myself as I reached forward for a slice.
Christian smiled at me. “Mine, too. I hate pizza that has all that extra shit on it.”
I moaned again as I took a bite of the cheesy slice. Christian adjusted himself, and I almost choked, my heart hammering against my breastbone. “Babe, if you want to take shit slow, you need to stop making all those sexy little sounds,” he warned me, his eyes now black.
My breath hitched in my throat. He reached up, and using his thumb, he swiped some sauce from the corner of my mouth. Then, with a sexy smirk, he popped his thumb between his lips, sucking the sauce off his thumb.
My belly tightened as everything down below throbbed for him. My breath hitched in my throat. I couldn’t look away from him.
“There it is,” he rasped, his eyes locked on mine.
I swallowed thickly. Oh, God, it was going to be so hard to fight the attraction between us. I wanted him–bad.
He finally broke our staring contest, and I sucked a large breath of air into my lungs, my scrambled brain finally resetting itself.
I needed so much help when it came to this man.
Once I had eaten three slices of pizza and drank two cups of soda, I was finally full. Christian managed to eat the rest of the pizza by himself. “Fuck, I was hungry,” he groaned as he stood up to throw the pizza box in the trash. “I haven’t eaten all day–been busy.”
I looked at the time on my phone, frowning. It had been an hour now since Axel had brought me to the office, and I needed to catch up on schoolwork before class in the morning.
“Something wrong?” Christian asked me.
I sighed. “I need to catch up on some schoolwork. I didn’t know this was going to take this long,” I told him.
He held his hand out to me. “Come on. I’ll take you home.” I eyed his hand warily. “Beautiful, you can trust me,” he assured me.
I knew I could trust him as a friend, as my brother’s employee. My brother wouldn’t have offered him a position otherwise. But could I trust him with my heart–my feelings?
I drew in a deep breath, wishing I had Meghan to give me some words of advice at that moment. I was so nervous. I liked Christian–a lot.
Let me breathe life into you.
I placed my hand in his, giving him so much power over me with that single, simple gesture. He gave me a tender smile in return. “So brave, beautiful,” he whispered.
My heart skipped a beat as his warm, strong hand wrapped around mine.
4
ALL THE BLOOD
Ally
It had been a week since I’d seen Christian. I’d been focusing on school, playing catch-up, and I’d finally turned in the last late assignment yesterday. Thankfully, after Dr. Gresham’s note and Axel’s email to all of my professors, I was given a different due date for all of my material to be turned in to them.
Now, I was sitting in the receptionist’s chair at my brother’s office since his receptionist called out because her son was sick with the flu. He was worried about finding a replacement, but I offered. It wasn’t hard. I’d done it before for him.
Honestly, it was so easy that I normally sat there either reading a book or working on assignments for school.
Like this fucking chemistry assignment that I was stuck on.
I was really beginning to regret majoring in pharmacy.
“That textbook is going to catch on fire in a minute,” Christian teased.
I jerked my head up, staring at him in shock. I hadn’t seen him all day, so I was surprised to see him standing there now. He was wearing a white button-down shirt with the top button undone at his neck. His dark hair was in a messy disarray on the top of his head, looking like he’d run his fingers through it numerous times.