Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 134654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
“Is this my payback?” I asked, squeezing my eyes against the new onslaught as he rubbed my clit.
Laughing quietly, he worked his way along my collarbone and dropped farther down my torso. Kissing each rib, he replied, “You controlled me last night. You took what you wanted from me and I didn’t complain.”
I snorted. “I took nothing. I did it for you—to give you pleasure.”
He shook his head, the dark strands tickling my belly as he scooted between my legs. “You did give me pleasure, but you also enjoyed dominating me.” Blowing a breath on my exposed pussy, he whispered, “It’s my turn.”
Pressing me back on the mattress, he shoved the sheets onto the floor and sat on his haunches.
My heart stopped.
His cock stood straight up from between his sculptured legs. The mermaid tattoo seemed to have an extra twinkle in her eye, just like Arthur.
“I’m going to show you how much last night meant to me, Buttercup.”
I shivered, raising my hands above my head on the pillow. Boldly, I spread my legs, displaying everything I was to this man. My breasts—one burned, one inked—my stomach with its color and scars. I let him drink me in. “I’m not going to argue.”
He smirked. “I’m glad about that; otherwise I’d have to get my tie.”
I clenched. “On second thought …”
Shaking his head, mirth suffusing his gaze, he imprisoned my hips. His fingertips bruised my skin, sending flares of heat through me.
Arthur Killian was polished ruthlessness and savage lawlessness. He camouflaged himself with an urban gloss that fooled no one; he was never fully able to hide the untamed animal inside his heart. But where an animal was vicious and controlled by instinct, he was also loyal, affectionate, and kind. An animal had no secrets—it bared its soul, loved unconditionally, and had no defenses when it came to its mate.
I’m his mate.
And I was helpless to resist him when he drugged me so completely.
His vivid green eyes gave me no room to hide as he inspected every fraction. His fingers toyed with the trimmed curls between my legs. His lips seduced me with a lazy smile speaking of carnality and destruction.
“You’re breathing very fast, Buttercup.”
“I can’t help it.”
His eyebrow rose, willing me to go on—to divulge secrets of my own. I had no more walls, no more black holes in which to fight for answers. I owed him every memory, every thought. “The way you’re watching me. The way you’re touching me. It’s driving me insane.”
He bit his lip, eyes darting between tattoos and scars. “Having you in my bed is more than just a miracle; it’s a goddamn phenomenon. Forgive me if I look at you as if you aren’t real.” His voice dropped, filling with awe. “It’s because I keep thinking none of this is real. That the headaches are a sign of my insanity. That I’ve left reality behind and found salvation in hallucinations.”
His fingers floated over my belly, through my folds, along my inner thighs. Everywhere he touched me, I erupted and smoldered.
His pain fisted my heart.
He was too much.
Too deep, too pure, too perfect.
“Could a hallucination give you what I did last night? Could a ghost lick you until you came?”
His smile was crooked and cheerless. “You don’t know how many nights I woke to a dream so similar to what you gave me. You don’t know how many times I woke cursing and raging because I didn’t want to leave a world where I had you only to lose you day after day.”
My chest splintered. My rib cage became firewood for the incinerating flames inside my heart. “Arthur …”
I loved him too much. The way he spoke terrified me that I wouldn’t be able to keep him now that I’d found him again. Would we always be shadowed by the past?
My shaky sigh webbed around us. “Let it go. You have to let it go.”
The pain.
The torture.
The driving need for revenge.
He needed a fresh start—away from here. He needed to let the future take us forward, rather than let the past drag us back.
Raising his hand, he squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. I have no idea how this turned from pleasure to …”
Wedging myself upright on my elbows, I whispered, “I know why. It’s because you don’t believe in us.”
His eyes flashed open. “How can you say that?”
“Because it’s true. Until you accept that life has brought us back together and stop reliving the pain of being apart, you can’t believe in what we have.”
“I know what we have and I do believe in it.” His voice was a whip, slicing through the melancholy. “I’ll show you.”
Knocking away my elbows, he forced me to lie back down. In a swift move, he switched from haunches to stomach, positioning himself between my spread legs.
His hands clamped down on my thighs, gluing me to the mattress. “I’ll show you until you trust me.” His dark hair framed his extraordinary face as he looked up the length of my torso. “I’ll prove to you that I’m yours, no matter what.”