Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74844 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74844 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
It’s evident I am very happy.
He makes me happy.
I send the photos to my sisters as the tears threaten to fall. They text me back, but I ignore them as I look at each picture over and over. Each photo is a wrecking ball to my walls, and it’s hard to ignore how fucking blissful I am with Alex. I can’t help but feel like a fraud, though. He doesn’t know my secret. I haven’t even told him I love him. Yet he believes so deeply in us that he put a ring on my finger. A ring I don’t want to take off because I don’t want to lose him. Not when he looks at me like I’m the only person he has ever wanted in his life.
I love him.
I look up to find that his mom has caught Alex in another hug, and my heart warms at the sight. He kisses her as he disentangles himself from her and then points to me. I wave, and she grins at me as he heads to the car. Once he’s in, he starts the car and pulls out before taking my hand in his. We ride in silence as the radio plays the hits, and his thumb plays with the band of the ring he just placed there. I watch his thumb before I look over at him. A smirk sits on those full lips, his beard so neatly trimmed and his lashes dark and thick. He’s so fucking gorgeous and all mine.
I want to tell him everything.
I want to trust that he’ll love me even once he knows.
I blink back my tears as we ride in comfortable silence. When we get to our room at the hotel, I want to fall into the bed and not move, but I know sleep will elude me. I sit in the little kitchen nook and slip off my shoes to rub my feet. All the dancing and standing I did weren’t kind to my feet, but I wouldn’t trade tonight for anything.
Alex comes from the bathroom and grabs the chair across from me to sit in front of me. He sets my feet in his lap before rubbing the heel of my left foot. I take him in as he sits before me in a green button-down shirt and fitted khakis that stop at his ankles. His clothes are tight over his shoulders and his thighs, and I’m surprised the chair isn’t groaning from his weight. He’s big, powerful, and oh-so gorgeous.
“You’re too good to me,” I tell him, breathless, as I watch him rub my feet.
He smirks. “Gotta make up for time missed.”
I shake my head. “You don’t.”
“I do,” he says, meeting my gaze. “And my cock will be in your mouth soon enough for the same reason.”
When he winks all sexy and wanton, heat hits me like a puck to the gut. “So, for foot rubs, I gotta give you head?”
He gives me a grin that is both playful and hot. “Not all the time, but after you trapped my cock between those sweet ass cheeks as you danced with me, I need your mouth.”
“Sounds good to me,” I purr, and his eyes darken as his thumb digs into my arches.
He doesn’t look away as he continues to rub his thumb along my feet. “What are you thinking about, mami? I can see the gears working overtime in your eyes. No one upset you, did they?”
How he reads my body so well makes me breathless. My mouth goes dry as I realize what I am about to admit. I bite my lip and fight back the tears and fears that are begging me to run. To not do this. To not open myself up to him. I lick my lips and look down to where I am absent-mindedly rubbing the ring he just put on my finger. My heart is jackhammering in my chest, but I can’t be a fraud anymore. I swallow hard, ignoring my need to run and hide. I owe him this.
“Not at all.”
“Then what’s going on, mami?”
“I told you a bit of my past,” I start, and his thumb stops, his eyes locking on mine. “That I grew up in a cult.” He nods, and my heart jumps into my throat. Shit, I’m doing this. “Well, I never really got into the nitty-gritty of it, but it was pure hell.”
“What do you mean?”
Chills run through my body as I look away.
“Elliot, look at me.”
I meet his gaze without hesitation, the demand in his voice giving me no choice.
“I want your eyes on me, so you know you’re safe and not there anymore.”
God, I love him. My bottom lip quivers as my heart cracks open for him. With my eyes on him, I swallow past the lump forming in my throat and exhale. I don’t recognize my voice. “My older sisters were abused, badly, to protect Clara and me. We didn’t know a lot about what had happened because we were so young, but when we got older, they shared what they went through. They were bitten, raped, and beaten to a pulp, all because they wouldn’t let anyone touch me or Clara. They protected us, sheltered us from the mayhem that was our lives.”