Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 142801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“—so sorry.” But it isn’t enough. Not after those words. God, I’ve made such a mess of things.
“I was so confused. I had so many thoughts swirling through my head. Everything you’d done, everything you’d said. The good and the bad, all of it.”
“Darling, I’m so sorry. I was wrong about so many things.”
“You’re not listening, Oliver. I couldn’t trust myself to stay, but I should have. I should’ve trusted my heart—it’s there where I know who you truly are.”
My throat aches, and my own heart twists, half with hope and half with agony.
“Leaving you was wrong. It felt wrong. Feels wrong now. I just didn’t know what else to do.”
Relief. Oh, fuck, the relief as I reach for her. “Give me this chance, and I’ll never give you cause to doubt again. I promise you things will be different.”
“That’s just it, Oliver. I’ve come to realize that people don’t change.” She looks sad as she brushes the backs of her fingers across my cheek. “Their masks just slip a little.”
“No, that’s not true.” I haul her closer, pulling her body flush with mine, my thoughts thundering, even as her eyes soften with a tender warmth.
“Oliver.” My name is a soft breath on my cheek. “Your masked slipped. You were showing me glimpses of who you were all along. You’re not just Oliver Deubel, the autocratic, blackmailing, asshole tycoon. You’re also the man who loves me beyond anything else.”
“Eve.” Pure joy floods through me, my arms fusing in their hold. “Oh, God. Eve.” Finally. “I love you so much.”
“I know,” she whispers, her eyes bright and wild, glimmering like stars in the night sky.
Our mouths meet. A touch. A slide. It’s everything.
“Why didn’t you come home?” I demand, taking her face between my hands.
“I needed space. Maybe I needed you to come for me. And you did.”
“I’ve got the mosquito bites to prove it.”
Laughing, she buries her face in my chest. I hold her tight, screw my eyes tighter. “I’m so sorry—I must stink. But I’m not letting you go. Not now, not ever.”
Her laughter trembles, tears fall, as she pulls me to the tiny bed. Our legs tangle, and my heart feels fit to burst when I tip her chin. Brush her cheek, stare into the face of my everything. She is perfection and sees me, loves me despite my flaws. Fuck. Love might be the ultimate risk, but I understand now why people seek it, fucking die for it. The payoff is sublime. The connection . . .
And then her hand slides between us and connects with something else.
“Here?” It’s not really a question, more a husky confirmation.
“Note how I pulled you onto my bed?”
“I love a decisive woman.”
“Oh, yes, you do.”
“But darling, I have one last confession to make before you can have your wicked way.”
She groans and drops her head back to the mattress.
“I’ve done something.”
“Please don’t say I have to get Pieter to shoot you. Not after you’ve come all this way.”
“Pieter?” My gaze shifts briefly. “I thought the other one must’ve been Tucker.” I give my head a quick shake. “Actually, I don’t want to know. I don’t care what passed between the two of you.”
“Between me and Tucker?”
“Not my business.”
“You’d still have me?”
“In a heartbeat. Though the first time of having you might only last ninety seconds.”
“That’s the best you’ve got?” she whispers, drawing my lips down to hers. “Because Tucker is a hunk of loving no girl can resist.”
“Eve.”
“He likes to pet my face while he curls his long tail around my butt.”
“I don’t need to—” I hold a finger between us. “Wait. His tail?”
“It’s huge! So, so long.” But she’s chuckling.
“But is it pretty?” I demand.
“Not as pretty as—”
I slide my fingers under her shirt, and oh, fuck, her skin feels like silk, a moment later her breast filling my hand. And then we’re kissing. God, how we kiss.
“Tree kangaroo,” she rasps, pulling at my T-shirt. She yanks it over my head. “Tucker is a tree kangaroo.”
“Deviant,” I growl, making her laugh again. “But you still might need your friend with the gun.”
“You’re jealous?” Her eyes are bright as I push up onto my palms.
“I think I might have rabies. I’m definitely stark raving.” I drop my hips, and we both gasp at the contact. “Because I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
“That’s not . . . very complimentary,” she rasps as she undulates against me. “Wait,” she demands, pushing at my shoulder. “That’s it? That’s your confession?”
“That, darling, and I bought you a Pemberley.”
Chapter 50
EVIE
A Little Bird Told Us . . .
Our London lovers are back on again.
PDAs. Knicker flashes. Wedding bells. We want to see them all!
“Now, where were we?” I purr as I slide my thigh over his, the flare of my robe settling over us like a silken flower bloom.