Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Everything is so quick. We have to be fast—who knows how long Harper will be distracted with all her tasks—but that only heightens the intensity. It’s like we’re trying to get away with something bad, racing against the clock to have each other.
“God,” he moans like he absolutely loves the taste of me, and I swear I’ve never heard a sexier sound in all my life.
I already feel the tingles building, that possessive need clawing at me.
If he kept at it for another minute, I’d come apart like this, but I want him inside me. I want to feel him there and he knows it, mostly because I’m making that very clear with explicit instructions. He swipes me off the island and we’re down on the plush carpet. He lines us up, captures my mouth, and slides inside me to the hilt.
There.
Bliss.
“Holy shit,” slips from my mouth like I’m in rapture.
“Hold on,” is his warning.
He takes me on the floor like I’m his heart, body, soul. My arms wrap around his neck. He kisses me and builds that hard, fast rhythm. Then one of his hands snakes between us so he can caress me where I need it.
I come so quickly it surprises me. There’s no possible way to hold back and regain control; he knows just how to work me up.
“Another one,” he insists, the greedy bastard.
“We can’t!” I laugh.
But his hand is still there, rubbing in slow, tantalizing circles. He stays inside of me, but he stops pulsing in and out. He stills and focuses on me, hitting that perfect spot even as I resist, even as I feel overly sensitive from my first orgasm. He rips a second one from me and I arch up off the ground, an animalistic cry piercing the quiet space.
Then he takes my hips in a crushing grasp as he thrusts into me over and over, sating his need. In the dark shadows, our eyes meet as he stiffens inside me. A groan tears through him and his head falls to the crook of my neck, his breath hot and heavy.
I knit my fingers through his thick hair and hold him against me.
We don’t have long. Maybe not even a minute.
“Chloe…”
He sounds so vulnerable, a heart splayed open. His head turns and his lips brush against the shell of my ear. When he speaks, it’s nothing but a faint whisper.
“I love you.”
I squeeze my eyes closed and let those words settle over me.
Love? Truly?
He says it again, more emphatically, and I can barely believe it.
“You aren’t supposed to laugh,” he teases.
“I can’t help it. I’m just so…”
Happy.
I’m so unbelievably happy.
EPILOGUE
CHLOE
The Sunday we move back to the city, I take Harper and Luke to my parents’ house for family dinner. Only, I don’t tell any of my family they’re coming with me. I have a whole plan, very dramatic, very well executed. I walk in first, and everyone’s surprised to see me.
“I thought you were still in the Hamptons” yada yada.
“Nope,” I say, holding up the sports gear Luke signed for them. “I needed to deliver this stuff to you guys.”
This was exciting enough. You would have thought it was Christmas morning in my parents’ small apartment. Little cousins tore through those bags like they were looking for a winning lottery ticket. Signed shirts flew through the air, everyone slipped on the baseball hats and jerseys and thought they were hot shit. But then, then, I said, “Oh, you know what? I actually forgot one of the bags out in the hall.”
Only…I didn’t forget a bag. I went out there to grab Luke and Harper, and then I pushed them into the apartment.
My family went absolutely bananas.
I swear to god I was scared my dad was going to have a heart attack. He couldn’t talk for a solid five minutes. He just stuttered, stammered, opened and closed his mouth about a million times before he laid a hand over his heart, closed his eyes, and tilted his head toward the heavens like he was thanking the good Lord for this opportunity of a lifetime.
So, anyway, I’m the family favorite. I’d like to see someone try to take my spot now. Sorry, Gio.
Later that week, Harper and I go down to Miami with Luke as promised. We buy matching bathing suits and swim in the hotel pool, we go to the zoo together, and we spend time at the beach. We lose our minds at the baseball stadium when Luke takes the field for the first time. The fans also lose their minds.
“That’s my dad!” Harper says, bouncing up and down in the private suite.
We both end up with tears in our eyes.
Once we get home, life mostly…settles. Not in a boring way, but in a healthy structured way. I relax into my relationship with Harper. With Luke’s guidance, I set boundaries and clear expectations. She knows she’s supposed to load her dishes in the dishwasher after dinner and help pick up her toys in the evenings. We keep a consistent bedtime for her and make sure we’re not piling too much on her plate. Once school starts, I cook her breakfast every morning and then walk her to school. I’m there early for pick-up every day too, ready right when she walks out so she never has to worry about who will be there to get her. I meet Maria and she and I become quite the team, especially when Luke’s out of town. It turns out it’s a pretty small world. She knows my mom really well—they used to work at the Plaza together—and we take a liking to each other immediately. I respect what a great job she’s done with Harper over the last few years, and she sees that I’m clearly in it for the long haul. At the end of her shifts, I send her home with all sorts of food for her family, and not just dinners—croissants, cookies, breads, you name it—and for that, she loves me a little extra.