Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 157140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
This buys me time to figure out what I’ll say, and nothing more.
Scratching my beard roughly, I shake my head, wishing I could eject the unsettled thoughts from my brain.
Why the hell am I more upset about Destiny almost catching us than I am about the fact that she knows what a bong is?
Eventually, I fight back my bile and the bulge in my pants enough to rejoin them.
Eliza laughs, pointing as another group of pointy silver backs emerge from the foaming sea. She’s faster at spotting the dolphins than the ship’s guide, who retreated to the canopy above the main cabin after realizing he wasn’t needed.
The happy shimmer in her eyes tears at me—something I never thought I’d see.
I stay quiet, only breaking my mood to smile softly at my daughter. I won’t let my own crap boil over and ruin this for her.
A dolphin barely ten feet away leaps up, breaching the waves, hovering under the bright sun and sparkling like a lump of silver before it goes crashing back into the ocean.
“Holy—wow! Dad, did you see that?” Destiny doesn’t wait for an answer; she just takes off, sprinting to the back of the boat for a better look.
“No running!” I call after her, even if I can’t help grinning like a fool.
She’s out here on the ocean, enjoying herself, without a hint of fear. It almost makes up for everything else I mucked up today.
Eliza’s loud laugh reminds me who I should be thanking, all sultry music in my ears. It also brings back the hard-on from hell.
“Eliza,” I whisper her name while Destiny has her back to us, fixated on the dolphins.
She spins around on one heel to face me, a nervous twitch in her eyes.
“Come closer,” I growl, reaching for her hand the minute she’s in arm’s reach.
I don’t hesitate.
I don’t ask.
I don’t even think.
I just pull her against my chest, loving how she gasps as she dips down, and I smother her lips. My teeth find her bottom lip and anchor down, firm yet gentle, the animal inside me pulling violently on its chain.
By some miracle, I break away as she blushes.
“Cole. Jesus. Shouldn’t we be... I mean, won’t Dess notice? I don’t want to upset her.” Her cheeks are screaming red.
I’m grateful she has a cooler head.
I’m damn glad she cares about my daughter.
“She’s highly distracted,” I say, silencing her with another ten-second kiss that pulls the breath from her lungs before she can protest.
Fuck, I’m bad. I only realize how bad when she’s pushing at my chest.
“Cole,” she whimpers, her chest heaving, her tits brushing me.
Goddamn.
If we were alone for ten minutes, if we even had a storage closet—
Stop. Stop it, you horndog fool.
I wish it were that easy. Apparently, spending the better part of a decade celibate makes my brain implode when there’s a young, beautiful woman breathing against me with her flesh hanging out.
A woman who acts like she’d come real sweet for me at the faintest touch.
I pull back—barely—making her gasp again when my cock grazes her hip through my shorts.
So hard. So ready. So insane with want.
“I had to tell you, I enjoyed our evening. Messy shit and all,” I whisper, well aware that I’m usually more eloquent.
“Yeah?” Her grin widens and her eyes sparkle with relief. “Um, me too. It’s the most fun I’ve had since...”
Thank God she doesn’t finish that thought.
Her smile just digs my grave deeper—or is it a tunnel straight to hell?
Without even realizing it, I’ve crossed a boundary that was sacrosanct, and we’ll have to acknowledge it eventually.
Just like we’ll have to decide if we want to breach that red line again.
I have no clue what I’ll say. I can’t convince myself that this is right.
Though I’m not sure I’d ever regret taking this woman to bed.
Not true, you caveman prick, I think. You live for rules.
You also don’t fuck strange women behind your daughter’s back.
You don’t ask for pain.
All you have are regrets.
No, not quite.
All I have are what-ifs, and they stab me every time I let myself fall a little deeper into Eliza Angelo’s smile, the way her chestnut hair splashes down her shoulders, the soft curve of her body against mine...
What if Destiny hadn’t come?
I know where there’s a hammock in a secluded corner, not far from where the trees begin. I don’t think anyone knows about it. I could have led her there.
I could have stripped off her soaking wet panties and splayed her legs open and mounted her like a bull in rut.
My cock pulses at the thought. I have to fight not to grind myself against her like a dog.
Fucking hell.
What if instead of apologizing for the colossal mess I’ve made by acting on my attraction, I grab her by the hand and lead us both into stupidity?