Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
“When that happened, Dad—”
Oh no.
They definitely couldn’t go there.
“Don’t give me that, Di.”
“He made it so that guy—”
“I’m tellin’ you, babe, don’t fuckin’ give me that.”
“That guy—”
Fuck it.
To shut her up, he hooked her around the back of the neck, yanked her to his body, bent his head and took her mouth.
For a beat, she stilled.
Then she melted into him and her hands slid up his chest.
Given the invitation, he tipped his head to the side and touched his tongue to her lips.
She opened, Hugger slid his tongue inside and tasted toothpaste and warmth and woman and mysteries and truths and the fullness of life.
All of it crashed into him all at once.
It was crushing.
And it was fucking fantastic.
He angled his head even more, clamped his arm around her, leaned into her, arching her over his arm, and took the kiss deeper.
Diana mewed in his mouth and slid her fingers into his hair, her other arm tight around his neck.
She pressed close, and she gave.
And gave.
And more.
Then she took, tangling her tongue with his, darting it in to get her taste of him.
Feeling her invade, his cock jumped and a growl rolled up his throat.
Her mew came back and she pushed harder into his frame.
They held on and took from each other and gave to each other and nothing else mattered.
Nothing.
The world wasn’t totally fucked. Heinous shit didn’t happen to good people. You didn’t have to sweat and bleed and beg for any scrap you got.
No.
The world was Diana’s balcony, her soft body against his, her hand in his hair, the open promise of who she was and what she could offer more than enough to give a man motivation to climb mountains.
As that thought bolted through him, Hugger broke the kiss, but not his hold, tucking her cheek against his chest.
It was then, in his mind’s eye, he saw his Chaos brother, Joker’s head come out from behind the hood of a car and the look on his face when he saw his old lady Carissa walking into a bay at Ride.
He saw Shy’s expression when his gaze landed on Tab when he walked in that hospital room where their kid was in a bed with a really bad flu.
He saw Georgie giving Dutch shit, and Dutch’s eyes lighting up, because he loved it.
He saw Tack where he’d seen Tack maybe hundreds of times, ass resting on the edge of Tyra’s desk in her office at Ride. He didn’t need to be there for work. He was just there because his woman was.
A kaleidoscope of the same from Lanie and Hop, Millie and High, Hound and Keely, Jag and Archie, Rosalie and Snap, Rush and Rebel churned through his brain, and fuck, he’d been slow on the uptake.
It had been there all along.
Right in front of his face, all around him.
All along.
What his ma wanted for him.
What Big Petey and Rush had been offering him.
Even if it was all over that FFO barbeque that introduced him to the life he could have, it was what he’d never grasped, intellectually or emotionally.
“Um…” Diana hummed against his chest.
He let her head go but wrapped that arm around her to join his other.
She tipped her head back.
Her lips were bruised, there was pink in her cheeks…
Christ.
Amazing.
“So that was a really, kinda…uh, important kiss. Yeah?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
He felt her body sag against his with relief.
Yeah, she was as into him as he was her.
“So maybe we should get some things clear,” she suggested.
“Di—”
“I’m into you.”
There it was.
She went on, “I like you. I really liked that kiss. And, well, none of this is optimal with all that’s going on and the fact we live in two different cities in two different states.”
“Yeah,” he agreed again.
“But I…well…” She faltered.
“I like you,” he said quietly. “I’m into you. This is shit timing, not only for the reasons you stated, but I’ve got things I gotta figure out before I’m good to get deep with a fucking fantastic woman I wanna get to know better.”
He didn’t think she could melt any more, but she practically fused with him then, a happy light sparking in her pretty green eyes.
Hugger instantly fell in love with that light. He wanted to keep it lit until he took his last breath.
But she had to know.
“Baby, the shit I gotta wade through is pretty deep and not the kind of thing you lay on a woman you just met and wanna get to know,” he warned.
“Um, were you there at Sack’s when I had a breakdown because my dad had demonstrated for the first time in twenty-nine years he gives a shit?”
Hugger couldn’t believe it, but he grinned.
She watched him grin, then looked up in his eyes. “Yes, you were. We learn something new every day, if we pay attention. And the last few days, I learned you don’t get to the pick the time you meet a guy who you want to jump his bones.”