Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65116 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65116 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
I moved into her body and slid my arm around her waist, my warm palm feeling the smooth glide of the curve of her back. The second my fingertips came into contact with her bare skin, I felt the small shock that exploded in my veins. It’d been so long since I’d touched her like this…felt her like she was mine.
She tensed at my touch but didn’t pull away.
I secured my arm around her waist, and I pulled her close to me, desperate for the affection I’d once had access to on a daily basis. I could have hugged her whenever I wanted to, but I never took the time. Now, it was a luxury I couldn’t have at my beck and call. I had to go for it and hope she wouldn’t shove me off.
Thankfully, she didn’t.
I kept her close and rested my chin on her forehead, my eyes closing like I might drift off to sleep. My other arm spanned across her back and reached for her other shoulder. Once she was against me, I tightened my hold just a little more. Her smell wrapped around me, taking me back in time to when she trusted me.
I missed when she trusted me.
She’d always had this look in her eyes…like I was the person she looked up to.
She rested her forehead against my chest. When she didn’t pull away, I knew she wanted this too. She still missed me even though she was angry with me. She still lived for this kind of affection. Brandon had been a distraction for the night, just as the girls were to me. They didn’t mean anything to either of us.
This did.
I kept my eyes closed and fantasized about lifting her into my arms and carrying her to bed. Vivid images of us kissing, touching, dropping clothes all over the floor came to me. I wanted to bend her over the bed and kiss the skin everywhere, devour her like a hungry wolf. I wanted to yank on her hair and use it as a leash to keep her obedient. I wanted us to be together, to go back to what we were.
But this was the most I would get.
I could hold on forever, but I knew I shouldn’t. If I asked for too much, it would push her away. My arms slid down her back, and I let her go, hoping her scent would stay on my skin once my clothes were off. When the depression took me, I could just remember this embrace…and tell myself that I could still fix this.
“What was that for?” she asked, her fingers sliding past my arm until I left her touch.
If that wasn’t obvious, she couldn’t read me very well. “Because I miss you.”
9
Arwen
By the time I got out of the shower, Brandon had blown up my phone with text messages.
Call me.
Did you move out of your apartment?
Are you alright?
Messages popped up every few minutes. When I’d left my apartment and returned to Maverick, I’d sent Brandon a cold text and said I was done seeing him. We were never serious, so I didn’t feel the need to give a more detailed explanation.
He obviously didn’t think I was serious.
I patted my hair dry with a towel then returned to the bathroom. I finished drying and styling my hair before I came back to the bedroom, a gray robe tied around my waist. When I glanced at my screen, I saw I had five missed calls.
I sat on the edge of the bed and picked up the phone.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Come in.”
Maverick stepped inside. He was wearing tight jeans and a black blazer, the dark shadow on his jawline prominent because he’d skipped his shave that morning, but it brought out the color of his eyes.
My phone kept lighting up with text messages, but I ignored them.
He sat on the edge of the bed beside me, his arm brushing against mine. “Want to have dinner with me tonight?” After he’d hugged me in the hallway, he’d left me alone for a couple of days. He never pressed his advance too much. If he tried too hard, I would only step back.
I usually had meals in my bedroom, but I could go to the dining table for once. “Yeah, I’ll meet you down there tonight.”
“I meant we would go out to dinner. Take a drive to Florence.”
Not once had we done that. The only time we’d had a meal outside the house was at one of his parties. But the two of us had never faced each other across a table in a restaurant.
The phone in my hand kept blowing up with more messages from Brandon. It became so frequent that I turned the phone to silent.
“That’s not how you get rid of a guy.” He grabbed the phone out of my hands and called him.