Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 143633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 718(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 718(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
“Stop it!” Lola said, but he was right. They likely did. Especially with me and Rosie.
“Excuse me, please,” I said to the pair of them, and marched on ahead like a man possessed, striding straight on over to the suited idiot trying it on with my girl. I wanted to tear him away from her and throw him across the room, but managed to keep some semblance of calm, taking her hand in mine on the bar top.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
“Hey,” she said, and kissed my cheek, but that wasn’t enough for me. I met the guy’s eyes before I took Rosie’s chin in my hand and turned her face to me, possessively. I kissed her like we were in the bedroom and not at a club bar, my tongue a beast as it danced with hers, lost to everything but how much I needed her, and how desperate I was for the club to know about it. I would have screamed it from the rooftops, right across the city from a loudspeaker, just to let the world know that the goddess in my arms was mine.
No shame. No remorse. No lies.
Rosie was mine.
The sweet little girl – goddess – was all mine.
The idiot was gone when I broke the kiss. Her lips were puffy and gorgeous as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Do that again, please,” she said with a flutter of her lashes, not giving a fuck that the club was watching, and that Lola and Peter had long arrived back at our side.
“My fucking pleasure,” I said, and kissed her so hard that even Lola called out get a room!
Chapter Thirty-Five
Julian
Seeing the girls’ faces as they soaked up the energy of the club was magical. Seeing the way Peter smiled at Lola like she was his whole world was a mirror of my own adoration for the angel at my side. Rosie was a goddess in pastel pink, her fake lashes a fluttery delight, mixed in with her trademark glasses, shining with sweetness.
A club of this calibre, thrumming with city nightlife, was my usual kind of environment. Something I’d been used to for years. It was a luxury and ambience I’d written off as nothing, just as I had written off my life all those months ago.
It’s funny how much more you appreciate things once you’ve gone through the pain of losing them.
I definitely didn’t want to lose anything else, and my senses were on high alert about it.
The risk of losing Rosie was there for me in vivid colour as I saw the looks she was getting from men around the room, but she was so caught up in our little crowd that she hadn’t the slightest idea how much of a playground she was in, or how much attention was rife around her. The same was true of Lola.
They were oblivious as they walked off to the bathroom together.
“Thanks again,” Peter said when they were gone. “This is fucking awesome. Beats the shit out of being back at home.”
Yes, it did. Home. The place I’d come to know as home, but wasn’t. I wasn’t suited to Crenham, and neither was Rosie – this trip had already affirmed that to me. Rosie didn’t realise it yet. And maybe she wouldn’t want to. Not with her mother estranged.
If only Beverly could see just how highly I held her daughter on the pedestal of the divine, I was sure Rosie could find out. Bridges needed to be built, and quickly – for Beverly’s sake as well as Rosie’s.
Luckily, a man always has his means. I just hoped my efforts would be worthy enough.
I watched Rosie reappear from the bathroom with Lola, arm in arm as they leant into each other and chatted.
“We’re lucky guys,” Peter said.
“Indeed we are.”
All thoughts of Beverly disappeared when Rosie reached me. The Lilith in her was sparkling, heady. Her body turned right into mine as she leant in for another kiss, and yet again, I was done for. I wanted to tear her gorgeous dress off her and get to the perfect pale flesh underneath. My cock was already hard at the thought of her skin being marked fresh as mine.
“Another dance?” Lola asked her as soon as our lips parted, keen to interrupt us.
We’d already had enough get a room this evening.
Rosie looked at me as though she needed my permission, but of course she didn’t. My angel was free to explore her own heights and pursue her own joys.
“You don’t need my permission, sweetheart,” I told her, and gestured to the dancefloor. “Enjoy. Have fun. Relax. Party all night, if you want to.”
“Thanks,” she said, her joy radiating so obviously, making her even more beautiful.
I shook my head at that, taking hold of her chin so her eyes were on mine.
“You don’t need to thank me. I’ll never hold you back.”