Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
I open my can and slurp beer.
My tongue tickles with delight and fizz.
It’s not the cheap, watery stuff you can get everywhere—this stuff is locally brewed and there’s real depth, an apple and toffee flavor that goes perfectly with this cool, fall-like evening.
“You outdid yourself tonight,” Patton says after a moment, leaning his head against the wall. I pull the blanket up to cover my bare shoulders. “I know it’s not easy mingling with that crowd of show-offs and blowhards.”
I smile. “It wasn’t so bad once I got the hang of it. You helped a ton.”
“Helped you find your confidence? I hope so. I remember the first time I came to one of these things with Dex, years ago…” He rubs a hand across his face. “I felt like a minnow in a roaring ocean.”
“And now all the big fish salute you and want a piece of your business.”
“Our business,” he corrects sharply. “I might be alone, but I’m representing my brothers, too.”
“Didn’t they want to come?”
“Dexter’s too busy with married life these days, and Archer just hates this shit. Socializing, I mean. If it wasn’t for Colt, I think he’d find the last cave in Kansas City and crawl into it forever.”
I laugh at the ridiculous image.
I haven’t seen much of Archer. Although he’s pretty reserved, there wasn’t anything obviously anti-social about him.
“So you’re the social butterfly?” I nudge him in the side. “Or are you the bootlicker?”
He hesitates before he speaks.
“The sacrificial lamb. That’s more accurate.” His chuckle fades into the night. There’s just the empty desert ahead and bright pinpricks of starlight beaming down.
Somehow, the silence accented by this landscape doesn’t feel so suffocating now.
“I meant it, you know. What I said about you back there,” he says quietly.
I don’t know what to say.
But I am feeling things.
It meant a lot.
And where would I be without Patton Rory?
God, without the man who gave me my son?
New guilt rushes up like a man-eating wolf and bites me hard.
The night sky swirls with secrets, everything I want to say that’s tearing my heart to pieces.
Without knowing what I’m doing, I lean closer.
First, my arm brushes against his, and his skin feels too warm, too inviting. I can’t help leaning in.
With a surprised look, he tucks me against his side.
We share the blanket with our legs almost touching. And it’s the almost that makes me turn my face up, staring with questions mirrored in the starlit night.
Every place we touch burns.
Every place we don’t burns more.
Holy hell, the places I want him…
I swallow hard, praying he doesn’t notice.
I’m not sure where my inhibitions went, but when his lips find mine, they’re totally abandoned.
His kiss comes hot and wild like summer heat stolen from the distant white sands.
In the cool air, his mouth smolders, and he tastes like beer. My fingers tangle in his shirt, pulling him closer.
“Salem,” he growls against my mouth.
I moan back.
His hand brushes my hair away so his hungry eyes can see my face, just waiting to be devoured. He pauses, and I freeze, wondering if he’s going to turn me away after all this in a flash of reason.
But he shakes his head.
“You’re so goddamned beautiful tonight,” he tells me and kisses me again.
I can feel the electric current all the way to my toes.
I’ve never had any man kiss me like Patton.
It’s not a whisper, not a question—it’s a brute demand and God, I want to give in.
I want to give him everything.
When his tongue sweeps fully into my mouth, mine meets it.
When he pulls me into his lap, my legs straddling him, I whimper.
Gripping his shoulders, sliding my hands through his hair, trembling in his arms. Even when he’s so clearly turned on, it’s hard to let myself just be.
And when he picks me up, cradling me against his body like I’m weightless, I just wrap my arms around him and keep my mouth molded to his, savoring every spearing thrust as he claims my mouth.
His hand finds my breast, fingers stroking roughly through the fabric. It only takes a single bead of pressure from his thumb over my nipple.
I’m flipping melting.
Moans become hot gasps.
My legs part as his other hand roams my thigh, so deliciously greedy.
“Fuck,” he rasps, breaking the kiss.
His eyes snap to mine, all blue witchfire.
There’s no hesitation left in my brain.
None whatsoever as he hauls me up a second later and carries me inside.
I already know we’re heading straight to the bed.
And I have exactly one panicked second before the déjà vu hits.
This feels so familiar as he lays me on the bed before him and eclipses me with his body.
Except this room is more luxurious, the bed larger, and I’m older and more certain and supposedly wiser.
Less drunk, at least.
I suck my bottom lip as his hands cover my breasts, picking up where he left off, teasing me with this rough pressure that leaves me shaking and soaked.