Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
“I’m going to kiss you.” He needed to kiss her before he opened Pandora’s box. Once he saw what was in the hut, he’d know if there was a chance for her. Strangely, his heart pounded as he waited for her answer.
Shylah continued to stare into his eyes, taking him somewhere he’d never been, but it was a place he was willing to go. He’d felt physical attraction when he was with other women. He’d never felt like this—wanting to know everything about her. Everything. Her opinions. Her friends. What she liked or didn’t like. He’d never cared, and he’d never shared anything about himself with other women. He wanted Shylah to see past his physical appearance to him. He needed her to care who he was.
“I was hoping you would.”
Her velvet-soft tone stroked his cock like the touch of fingers. That soft voice wrapped around his heart and squeezed like a fist. Those eyes, like the darkest night, sin and temptation, called to him. He bent his head. He didn’t have to go too far because she was tall enough for him to reach without stooping down.
Her arms slid around his neck, a slide of petal-soft skin. That familiar delicate scent enveloped him. Then her lips were under his. Cool. Firm. Soft. So inviting. His tongue demanded entry and she parted her lips and let him take her over. As a teen, working in the nursery, he had eaten his share of peonies. He’d become a little addicted to the taste of the flower. The petals were mild, but as a whole, they had a distinctly different flavor. If it was an acquired taste, he’d managed to develop a need for it.
That faint, elusive wintergreen was there, and he chased it. Cool heated fast. He nearly crushed her, pulling her into his arms, locking her there while he fed on her mouth. While he poured everything he was feeling but couldn’t say into her. His body recognized her. Knew her. Needed her. Every cell. He’d never been so acutely focused on another human being.
Heat coursed like molten lava through his veins, spreading through his body, moving straight to his groin until he was full and aching, pressed tightly against her. She knew, but it didn’t stop her from responding, kissing him back, giving him everything. In that moment, he felt like he belonged. He had a home. A woman. He had it all. Right there in the middle of a forest, with a virus eating his insides, he had it all.
Draden lifted his head just inches from her tempting mouth. “Did you practice kissing? Because I think that’s your greatest weapon.”
“If I said yes, you’d start wondering who I practiced with since we despised Whitney’s supersoldiers.” There was mischief in her eyes and teasing in her tone.
He laughed. He stood outside a hut where madmen had brought a virus that potentially could wipe out mankind, that virus eating away at him, but he was laughing. Because of her. Shylah Cosmos. She was so damned beautiful, inside and out, that he was shocked she would even look at him.
“That was totally unfair. Now, just because you said that, I’m going to have this image in my head and I’ll not be able to get it out.” He ran his thumb over her lips, listening to his heart pounding in his ears. Roaring really. For her.
“I can’t help it if you took that all wrong and now you’re perving on the idea of women practicing—with each other.” Her eyes were wickedly laughing at him. She leaned into him, her tongue sliding over the seam of his lips. “Let’s get this done. I’m wiped out and need sleep, and you’re pretty exhausted as well.”
He kissed her again. Instantly he was swept up in her fire. Flames licked at his body and electricity sparked and crackled in his bloodstream. Little whips of lightning struck his cock over and over as he indulged himself with that heated taste he was already so addicted to. He wasn’t as careful this time, taking it up a notch, needing that burn to consume him. He wanted the fire. The flames. That lightning striking him, sending his body into a frenzy for her.
He was more alive in that moment than he had ever been. He devoured her, getting a little high off the taste of her. The owner of the nursery had shown him that peonies could be candied, and that sweet taste would linger in his mouth after he consumed the exotic garnishes in numbers. He felt that way now, kissing her, tasting candied peonies and knowing they were all for him.
He pressed his forehead against hers, drawing in air, looking down at her flushed face and the sweep of her long lashes. “I’m not certain you’re entirely sane for making the decision to risk your life like you did, but thank you. In the short time I’ve known you, you’ve given me the best experiences I’ve ever had.”