Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
He nods. “You should see the other guy.”
“Do I want to see the other guy?” My heart pounds as I think about Shades killing a man a short time ago, and now he’s here with me. What, if anything, does that say about me? I’m cleaning his wounds, remaining mostly calm when there could be a man lying dead somewhere.
“Let’s just say he’s worse off than me. Fucker’s lucky he’s still breathing,” he grunts angrily, but his words have a strange, reassuring effect on me, and I get down to the business of cleaning and bandaging his wounds.
“Is everyone all right?”
Shades nods. “Everyone who matters is fine, sweetheart.” He wraps his uninjured arm around my waist and pulls me close. “I promise.”
I nod, accepting his words at face value. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
His brows shoot up, and his mouth splits into a grin. “Are you trying to get me naked, Letty? All you have to do is ask.”
“No.” I blush. “I didn’t say that.” I try to take a step back, but his grip tightens.
“So you don’t want to see me naked, Letty?”
“Of course I do, but that’s not what I said.” But with all of this talk about being naked, suddenly, that’s all I can think about.
Shades laughs, and the sound is so welcome that I can’t help but smile in return. “Good to know.”
“As if there was any doubt,” I mutter under my breath.
“Still, it’s nice to hear,” he says and tugs me close, distracting me from the task of bandaging him up. “Did you miss me?”
I bite the inside of my mouth to prevent the truth from spilling from my lips and just nod. I can’t tell him about the pastor because Shades already doesn’t like him and is suspicious of him. I don’t want him to doubt me but keeping quiet is difficult. “Maybe.”
“I missed you,” he says in reply and nuzzles his face into the crook of my neck. “I still smell like you. Like us,” he adds, and I’m powerless to stop the shiver that rises up my spine.
I lean into his touch because what else can I do? But I turn too quickly and brush against his side, causing him to wince, and I pull back. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he growls and pulls me to him. “Come closer. Stay here with me.”
“You’re hurt,” I insist because I don’t know how he can think about intimacy when he’s in so much pain.
“I am, and there’s only one thing that can help.”
I look at Shades, and he wiggles his eyebrows.
“Seriously?”
He nods.
“Impossible,” I tell him in all sincerity.
“Not impossible,” he shoots back and grabs my wrist until my hand is resting on his long, thick, well, you know.
“See what you do to me, Letty?”
Suddenly, I’m shy again, and I shake my head, refusing to hear him.
“That’s not me,” I insist.
“I guess we’ll just have to see about that,” he tells me, and a beat later, his lips crash down over mine. Instantly, my arms wrap around him and pull him close while he devours my mouth, exploring the depths until I shudder with need and longing. White-hot desire.
I groan at the feel of his tongue against mine, and his arms tighten around me, pulling me so close I don’t know where he ends, and I begin. Honestly, I really don’t care. All that matters is being right here, right now, with this man.
“Shades.” I pull back breathless and scan his face for signs of pain and find none. Slowly, I remove the leather vest from his shoulders, and then, with shaky hands, I lift the hem of his t-shirt until the entirety of his broad chest is bare.
“You’re bruised,” I tell him softly and put my hand over his abdomen.
“Want to kiss it and make it better?”
I know he’s joking, but that’s exactly what I do, lean forward and brush the softest kisses I can manage over his abs and around to his side, his back, and then back to his massive chest.
“Better?” I ask softly.
“Harder,” he growls with a smile.
His teasing words in that guttural growl make me smile. “Yeah?” I let my hands slide down to the impressive erection throbbing between his legs. “Oh. Wow.”
“Letty,” he growls, and I smile before I flick my tongue across the flat disc of his nipple.
“Fuck,” he says, throwing his head back in obvious delight.
That little shiver that rips through him is just the sign I need to keep directing this moment. “Maybe I did miss you. A little.”
He chuckles as I kiss my way down his abs while my hands quickly work on unzipping his pants and pop the button his jeans. You can do this, I think to myself, and then reach inside his boxers to grip his thick—I take a deep breath—cock. There, I said it.