Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97882 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Holden stormed to the other side of the room, his hands raking back through his hair before he left them clasped on top of his head, his back to me, eyes on the garden outside the window.
For a moment, I was shocked still and silent.
And then, I scoffed.
“Oh, fuck you, Holden,” I spat, shaking my head. “Don’t act like I played some game with you that you didn’t willingly participate in, too.”
He laughed, turning to face me before his hands hit his legs with a slap. “What do you want from me? Hmm?”
I sobered, swallowing. “A friend,” I said weakly.
“A friend,” he echoed on another bitter laugh. “Right. Okay. Then we’ll be friends. You can leave now.”
I shook my head. “I came over here to celebrate, to be fucking nice and bring you a goddamn muffin. You’ve been moved from me to JB. This is a good sign, Holden.”
“You think me getting switched to him means I’ll be playing soon?” he asked incredulously, and then he stepped toward me, face leveling out. “I was put with JB again because your father doesn’t want me anywhere near you.”
My jaw was set as I argued, “No, it’s because at this point, you need a more experienced trainer to step in and—”
“God, will you just…” Holden fisted his hands, shaking them as frustration colored his face red. “Shut up?!”
I all but growled as I crossed the space between us and pressed my chest to his, nearly knocking his chin with my own. “Make me.”
He stared down at me, his eyes flicking between mine, chest heaving with rage. He grabbed my arms like he was going to throw me off him, like he was going to shove me to the side and storm past me right out of the room.
But instead, he gripped them tight enough to bruise, like he wanted to leave a mark.
And he kissed me.
His mouth hit mine with brutal pressure, hands sliding roughly up my arms to grip my face, instead. And he pinned me there, holding me to him as he inhaled that kiss in a mix of want and fury.
I pushed back.
Pressing up onto my toes, I met his demand, opening my mouth and gripping his hair in my hands as I tugged back just a little, just enough for me to suck his bottom lip between my teeth and bite.
Holden groaned, and my entire body erupted in chills as his hands groped blindly down my back for my ass. He cupped me to him, and I scraped my nails down his back with the same infuriating need.
One breath, and I was lifted, my legs hiked up and wrapping around his waist as he palmed my ass and held me to him. Another, and I was dropped onto his bed, the covers whooshing up around me with the pressure of my weight hitting the mattress. I didn’t have time for a third breath before Holden was on top of me, his knee between my thighs, backing me up into his pillows with punishing, desperate kisses.
His tongue snaked against mine, and I held the hair at the nape of his neck, held him to me, demanding more. I ignored every distant warning sign blaring in the back of my mind, ignored every ounce of good sense I had that told me this couldn’t happen, that we couldn’t happen.
I wanted him.
I wanted him so badly I’d let him devour every bit of everything that I was. I’d let him banish me from existence, to wipe me off the face of the planet if it meant I got to succumb to this moment right now.
Holden ran his hands back through my hair and tightened his fingers into fists, making me arch, my chin tilting up and mouth popping free of his own. He licked and sucked along the skin of my jaw, my neck, across my collarbone as I writhed beneath the touch. I couldn’t move, not with him holding my hair so tightly, and it only made every caress that much more intense as he crawled his way back up, gently biting my chin before he claimed my mouth once more.
One hand released my hair, moving to my hip and squeezing me hard before he roughly pushed his palm up under the hem of my shirt. I wasn’t wearing a bra, and my nipples ached with need as Holden’s fingers splayed up my rib cage. He stopped short, just the tip of his thumb brushing the bottom of my breast as his thigh pressed against me, stimulating that sensitive bundle of nerves with the seam of my jeans.
I moaned into his mouth in a desperate plea for more.
It was the sound that shattered the illusion.
Holden stilled, panting, his grip going lax and lips still touching mine though he was no longer kissing me. He held me pinned there for only a second longer before he threw himself back, off me, all the way to the other side of the bed.