Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
I slipped a finger under her chin and lifted so our eyes met. “Are you sick of me?”
She cupped my cheeks. “God, no. How can I be sick of you when you wait on me hand and foot and wash my hair in the bathtub so I don’t get my cast wet?”
“Then why do you want to leave?”
“I don’t. But I also don’t want to overstay my welcome, Bennett. I feel up to doing things now, and except for the stairs, there’s no reason I need to be here anymore.”
I shook my head. “No reason? How about you want to be here?”
She softened. “Of course I do. But you know what I mean.”
I lifted her up and set her on the kitchen counter so we were eye to eye. “I don’t, actually. So let’s talk. Do you like my place?”
She turned to look at the living room and the view out the windows. “Uh, it makes my place look like a shithole. It’s depressing walking into my apartment after leaving yours.”
“So you like the apartment. How about the roommate?”
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. “He’s spoiling me. Plus, the view when he comes out of the shower in just a towel blows the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the living room out of the water.”
I wound her ponytail around my hand and kept her mouth to mine when she attempted to pull back. She opened when I slid my tongue between those luscious lips. I kissed her long and hard, and my heart felt full again.
The last few weeks, I’d been happier than I’d been my whole life. I knew I didn’t want this to end. The kiss was all the assurance I needed.
“Good.” I gave her pony a light tug. “Then it’s settled. You’ll move in. I’ll arrange for a moving company to go over to your place this weekend and pack up your stuff.”
Annalise’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You like the apartment better than yours. You’re hot for your roommate.” I shrugged. “Why leave?”
“Are you…are you asking me to move in with you permanently?”
I looked back and forth between her eyes. “I’m saying I want you here when I get up in the morning, and I want you here when I go to bed at night. I want your four different newspapers spread all over our bed, and your ridiculous amount of shoes filling our closet. I want you wearing my T-shirts to cook us breakfast when you’re feeling up to it again, and I sure as shit want you underneath me, on top of me, on your knees on our bedroom floor, and tied to the headboard while I eat you for dessert.” I paused. “Is that any clearer?”
She chewed her bottom lip. “There’s something I need to tell you first.”
I stiffened. “What?”
She rubbed her nose with mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. “I love you, Bennett Fox.”
I dropped my head and let out a big rush of air. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Saying there’s something you need to tell me? I thought… I don’t even know what I thought. But it didn’t sound fucking good.”
Annalise laughed. “Sorry.”
I squinted. “I’ll give you sorry. What the hell took you so long to tell me that, anyway? You left me hanging out there for weeks.”
She grabbed my T-shirt into two fistfuls and tugged me to her. “I wanted to be off the painkillers and meds that made me groggy so you’d have no doubt I meant it.”
I pulled my neck back. “You stopped the meds? The doctor said it was okay?”
She looked down and scraped her fingernail along my arm. Then she looked up under her lashes with the sexiest fuck-me eyes. “He also said it was okay to resume all activities. I just need to go easy.”
I’d been sporting the start of an erection since I walked in the door and saw her bent over. I needed confirmation before I got my hopes up. It had been a long-ass three weeks since her accident. “All activities?”
She wiggled her eyebrows. “All.”
The kitchen counter was the perfect height, and I wouldn’t crush her in this position. Plus, no wasting time walking to the bedroom. Reaching around to her ass, I pulled her to the very edge of the counter and pressed my growing hard-on between her legs. I felt the heat of her pussy through my pants and groaned.
Did I mention it had been three weeks?
“The right thing to do would probably be to make love to you right now. But I’m going to have to owe you slow and sweet, because I need you hard and fast before I’m calm enough to go slow.”
She ran her tongue along my bottom lip and then bit down unexpectedly. “Hard works for me.”