Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 129681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Every muscle in his body flexed and bowed and danced with mine, and he clutched me desperately when he burrowed his face in the crook of my neck as our orgasms throbbed through our bodies.
He never let go until we were nothing but a slow buzz of satisfaction.
He edged back and sent me a lopsided grin. “You are something, darlin’.”
It was sweet, sweet affection.
A minute passed before I whispered, “Jud.”
He pushed back onto his hands and gazed down at me with that tender smile twitching all over his face. I didn’t know if he saw the fear written in mine, if he felt it, if he could hold it, but he was brushing back over my scar.
“I will burn the world down for you.”
Everything trembled.
The heavens, the earth, and my heart.
“I don’t…” I couldn’t form the words.
He caressed away the fear, let a slow grin take hold of his mouth, though the words were heavy. “Don’t worry, baby. Friends.”
A frown curled my brow. He eased in and kissed it before he sat all the way back and resituated my dress.
Then he hopped to his feet and managed to pull his drenched jeans back up his thick thighs.
I tried not to ogle the man, but his cock was still hard. I had no doubt if I asked him, he’d be happy to climb right back over me and make me forget my name.
A tremble rocked me as I lie on the ground and stared up at him.
So gorgeous, my insides burned with the heat of a flashfire.
His hair, face, and beard were soaked.
Shirt stuck to his wide, wide chest.
A force that covered me in the storm.
He stretched out his hand to help me to stand.
I accepted it, arching a brow at him as he eased me to my feet. “Is that what we are, Jud? Friends?”
Dark laughter rumbled out and he pressed his face to the thrumming pulse that raged at my neck. He mumbled at the sensitive flesh, a balm to my soul, “Good, good friends.”
Then he curled his arms around me and whisked me back into his hold and carried me to his bike. I looked up at him through the raging storm. “What now?”
“Tonight? I take you back to my place, get you a hot shower to warm you up, then I’m going to fuck you right. Tomorrow? That’s up to you.”
TWENTY-TWO
JUD
There are moments in our lives that we know are going to change everything. That once we take one step deeper, there will be no turning back.
We will be irrevocably changed.
Permanently marked.
A new tattoo that doesn’t just cover your skin, but the ink bleeds way down deep, deep enough to imprint your soul.
I had to wonder then which moment had permanently changed me with Salem. When I’d known if I took one more step, it’d be over for me.
Tonight? When I’d wrapped her up and whisked her away? When I’d touched her and taken her? When I’d filled her up and she’d taken me over, branding our bodies in the most magnificent way?
Had it been when I’d crossed the line and kissed her down in the office, overcome with my need to hold her and keep her safe?
When I’d breathed out in relief when she’d shown with that ad to take the job?
Or had it been the second I’d first found her in the rain?
Or maybe…maybe…it had been every single one that had brought me closer to this girl. Each one life-altering, each step warning me if I got any nearer, I was never going to be the same.
And I kept at it, anyway. Unable to stop myself from the lure that called to me in a way that felt unavoidable.
Deeper.
What I did know was she’d scarred me.
Changed me.
Written herself in those places that I’d been sure were already penned. Unable to be edited or redrafted.
Salem had her arms curled around my neck as I carried her up the interior steps of my loft. Her breaths were short and shallow. I got the sense that she knew it, too. That we’d crossed a line that couldn’t be erased. That every second of this was different.
It’d felt like a merging out in that meadow. Even more so as she’d ridden on the back of my bike back to the shop, like something had shifted in the passing of the miles.
Like our spirits had managed to spill into the other and there was no way to get them back to their rightful places.
Eyes the color of a toiling sea stared up at me through the whispering shadows that shrouded the shop.
Gauging.
Evaluating.
Seeking.
I punched in the code to let us through the door into my loft. Stepping inside, I let it drop closed behind us. Dim lights warmed the darkness to a dusky glow.
Our clothes were soaked, two of us drenched through.