Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 131(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 87(@300wpm)
I breathed out roughly and closed my eyes for a second, trying to get my composure together. I had no control over my body where Pyper was concerned. There wasn’t even any point in trying to fight it. She was like this force of nature that destroyed me from the inside out, and I didn’t want it to stop.
I wanted that destruction as much as I needed to breathe.
I opened my eyes then and looked over at her again. My head was racing as I saw her head turned in my direction, as I watched her lift her hand and slowly pull her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, her eyes locked on mine.
And like it did every single time I noticed her glancing in my direction, my heart stalled, and the world tilted on its axis.
And all because she looked at me.
Chapter Two
Pyper
I shouldn’t have kept staring at him, because I’d gotten caught. That in itself wasn’t the end of the world, but I didn’t want Gio knowing I watched him. And I don’t know why I even cared. I knew he stared at me too.
For years, we’d done this back and forth, not really speaking, but I knew he watched me, and I was pretty sure he caught me nearly every time I stared at him.
And right now, our eyes were locked.
I felt my cheeks heat for that fact alone and prayed like hell he couldn’t see the reaction he caused in me. It wasn’t just my embarrassment that he caught me, but also because I didn’t miss how his eyes dipped to look at my chest, or my belly, or even my legs. Yeah, I’d seen him looking at me as he checked me out.
His gaze was intense, so powerful I could practically feel his fingers on my body, between my thighs.
As I watched him finish what he was doing, all I could think about was what it would feel like to have all that hardness pressed to me. To be fair, I always thought about that, but God, it was becoming a lot more insistent as each day passed.
He stood then, and I took him in. Gio was well over six feet. I couldn’t help but stare at his muscular yet lean body. I felt my body instantly react, felt my nipples harden, sensed wetness pooling between my thighs. I’d felt desire plenty of times since I knew what the feeling was, and every time, it was directed at—was because of—Gio. I’d never felt anything like this arousal, this passion, with anyone other than the boy currently walking away from where I sat.
I should have looked away and not been so obvious, but at this point, I’m completely shifted on the chair now, one hand on the cushion, my fingers digging into the fabric. My heart was racing as I watched him stop before he disappeared behind the side of the house. Our eyes locked again. So many feelings and desires spilled from me, but I was too afraid to ever say them.
And then the connection was broken, and I was left sitting there feeling empty.
I didn’t know how long I stayed by the pool there, but my interest in sunbathing when Gio wasn’t around diminished quickly. It wasn’t that I wanted to lounge around in my bikini so he could check me out, but more so that I wanted to be the one checking him out.
My feelings for Gio after all these years had grown from curious feelings, to a hard crush, to intense lust, to what they were today. Love.
At nineteen years old, I was a virgin, never knowing what being with someone was like, never going on a proper date or being kissed or anything like that. It was embarrassing when I really thought about it, but at the end of the day, the only person I wanted to share those with was Gio, whether he’d ever find that out or not.
It wasn’t some infatuation, some teenage desire for something and someone I really couldn’t have. It may not be a reality in the grand scheme of things, but for me, it was as real as it got.
And to be honest, I didn’t care about repercussions or consequences because of my feelings for him. I didn’t care if my family may not approve, although I knew my parents’ hearts and knew they wanted me happy above all else. But even knowing that, feeling that as deeply as I’d ever felt anything before, I’d never once gone up to Gio and told him.
I’d seen the way he looked at me, desire clear on his face. But desire and true feelings weren’t the same thing. Lust and love were very different. Did he desire me because he thought he couldn’t have me? I wanted to tell him he could have every single inch of me.