Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 130159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 651(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“No wonder that cold case was so personal for you.” Beck dropped a hand on his shoulder. “I’m not surprised you went to such lengths to clear his name. I can’t wrap my head around doing the same, but your father was a hero. Mine twisted the teachings of the Bible into a pretext for molesting little girls. But you and your dad were tight, right? I’m sure he’s proud you avenged him by offing Silas.”
Seth scoffed. “No, he’s turning over in his grave. After I lost my wife and son and turned in my badge, I didn’t just go dark, I became the dark. For over a year, I haunted every bar, brothel, crack den, and mob hangout. I got in bed with pimps, drug dealers, and mobsters until someone finally gave me Silas’s name.”
“In bed…how?”
Seth hesitated, then shrugged. Might as well puke up all the ugly shit. “I was their hitman. I killed other criminals for intel. And I slept just fine at night.”
Behind him, Heavenly gasped. Seth turned to find her on the stairs, wide-eyed, looking pale and shell-shocked. She’d obviously been standing there long enough to overhear things he’d never intended to tell her, things her tender heart probably couldn’t grasp…or forgive.
Fuck.
Then her “surprise” registered. The overhead light beamed down on the frilly pink confection she wore. It was so sheer he saw every inch of her body. Tiny bows held together fabric slitted open across her breasts, playing peekaboo with her tempting pink nipples. The baby doll floated around her thighs, barely concealing her pussy.
Everything about her called to him. Lust hit his system like a battering ram. He needed her to erase the darkness inside him. She would give him light again.
He charged past Beck, bumping the surgeon’s shoulder, and rushed toward her. “Angel…”
“Oh, my gosh. Seth…” Her eyes softened. She opened her arms to him. “I had no idea…”
Later, he’d unpack how it was fucking possible she wasn’t horrified and repelled. Even if she only gave him a pity fuck now, he needed her.
The instant he reached Heavenly, he cinched a hand in her hair and banded his arm around her waist. As his mouth crashed over hers, he surged deep, lifted her off her feet, and took her down to the stairs, hovering above her. He tore away from their kiss, panting, and tugged at the bow tied across her left breast. “I need this. I need you.”
Seth didn’t wait for her response. His animal urge to possess every part of her drove him. He swooped down and inhaled her nipple into his mouth, against the roof, and sucked as if his life depended on it. He circled it with his tongue. He raked it with his teeth. He tugged it until she gasped. He drank in her cries.
Jesus, she was the balm that took the edge off his pain. She was perfect. He just needed more.
Seth plucked at the other bow across her breast and drew her untended nipple onto his tongue as he encircled her hips and filled his palms with her bare, lush ass, fitting her against his near-bursting cock. Yes, as soon as he was inside her, balls deep, she would erase everything but pleasure. He would be perfect, too.
“I can feel the heat of your pussy,” he muttered thickly against her nipple. “I’m going to fuck you so hard. Drown in you. Disappear inside you…”
“Wait!”
It took Seth a moment to register the fact that the hands she’d laid on his chest weren’t caressing him but pushing him away.
No. He clutched her tighter, grinding against her cunt, his mouth seeking hers again.
She turned her head before he could fuse their lips together. “Seth, stop!”
Suddenly, he was hauled back by a fist in the collar of his dress shirt and spun away from Heavenly. Beck glowered in his face. He looked beyond pissed.
That made two of them.
“What the fuck are you doing? She said stop!” Beck shoved him and sent him stumbling back, then he stood protectively between him and Heavenly. “You don’t get to fuck her on the goddamn stairs. You don’t touch her at all until you get yourself under control.”
“She’s my woman, too. Get. The fuck. Out of my way.”
Beck bared his teeth. “Heavenly, go upstairs. Lock the bedroom door. Don’t open it until I come for you.”
Seriously? “You don’t fucking own her.”
“I don’t, but I’ll protect her with everything I’ve got. She said no. Touch her, and I’ll kill you.”
Seth’s laugh turned ugly. “You can try.”
“Stop it!” Heavenly retied the bows across her breasts with shaking fingers and scrambled to her feet. “Both of you.”
Beck shucked off his suit coat and handed it to her. “Cover up.”
To hide what Seth needed to see—to possess—for his sanity? Fuck that.
She shook her head. “He’s already seen it all. You both have. My nipples aren’t the issue. Our lack of communication is. From the start, we’ve hidden the messy parts of our lives from each other. That’s never ended well, but we keep making the same mistakes. We’re not learning.”