Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 132(@200wpm)___ 106(@250wpm)___ 88(@300wpm)
“I’m thirty-one, gorgeous.” I drag my mouth through her hair. “That’s too old for you. But when I think of some college punk taking you home, I want to burn Boston to the fucking ground, so it’s going to be me—and that’s the end of it. When you know…”
“You know,” she whispers, slowly winding her arms behind my neck.
Gratified to no end, I signal the bartender for a check and stand up from the chair, lifting her clean off the ground with no effort whatsoever, my heart rampaging in my chest. “Wrap your little legs around my waist and let everyone know I’m your man now.”
It’s overboard, it’s me acting like a caveman, so I don’t think she’s going to do it.
But when she makes a mewling sound and winds her thighs around my hips, something violently male rises inside of me and breathes fire. “Mine.” I slam my first down hard on the bar, rattling glasses and turning the head of everyone in the establishment. “Mine,” I shout again, winding her hair around my fist, drawing her head back and licking the column of her throat while making eye contact with every potential rival male in the vicinity.
I manage to throw some money onto the bar, before enfolding her precious body in my protective arms and striding out of the bar.
We’re not even going to make it home before I give her my first load of come.
three
Mandy
This feels like a dream—but it’s unlike any dream I’ve ever had, because going home with a near stranger is not something I’ve ever considered, even subconsciously. Yet here I am, allowing Bobby to carry me out of the bar in front of everyone. I’m almost afraid to gauge the reactions of Becca and Kandice, but I catch sight of their faces on the way out of the bar and their jaws are as close to the floor as humanly possible.
What are they thinking about me?
Do I care?
Maybe tomorrow I will. Right now, there is only this man holding me so tightly, with such familiarity and ownership that he feels less and less like a stranger with every sure stride he takes down the moonlit Boston sidewalk. I can’t really describe what’s happening here, except that I have no choice but to go somewhere with him, no choice but to remain as close to him as possible because I’m craving him with my very blood. His scent and touch and voice dug beneath my skin the second we locked eyes and now I’m someone else.
Am I being reckless? He’s a fireman. Maybe I’m being too trusting because of his profession? I’ve been taught from a young age that I’m always safe with firefighters, but I don’t think that extends to letting them take me home. Still, I have some deep sense of safety in his arms that only makes me cling tighter.
“Where are we going?” I whisper into his neck.
“My truck is parked in the alley.” He takes a right and the buildings cloak us in darkness, the sounds of Friday night still close by, but less present. “I’m going to take you back to my house, but gorgeous…I need to work off some of this tension first. Do you understand what I mean by that?”
Quickly, I sort through months of conversations between Kandice and Becca about their various dates and hookups. “We’re…going to make out in your truck?”
Bobby gives a pained laugh. “Something like that.” He reaches in his pocket to take out a set of keys and a beep sounds behind me. He wrenches open the passenger side door of a black truck, but instead of putting me in right away, he presses our foreheads together. “We won’t do anything you don’t like or want, Mandy. You say stop, we stop.”
My heart flops helplessly. “Thank you.”
He shakes his head. “I should thank you for trusting me enough to come home with me.” He plants a kiss on my forehead and looks me hard in the eye. “You are safe with me. You are the safest you’ve ever been in your life when I’m with you. Do you hear me?”
“Yes.”
Oh God. I can’t breathe.
I think I might be falling in love.
I’ve always scoffed at the probability of love at the first sight, but this rapid whirlwind of sensation and lust and affection must be that very phenomenon itself. It’s happening. I can’t believe it’s happening to me. “You text your friends, tell them Bobby Decker is taking you to his house in Revere.” He rattles off an address. “They’ll hear from you in the morning.”
He settles me onto the leather row seat of his truck and squeezes my knee until I do as he tells me. There are already ten texts from Kandice and Becca asking me what the heck is going on, but I ignore their questions and craft the text, hitting send within a few seconds. I assume Bobby is going to circle around to the driver’s side, so I’m surprised when picks me up around the waist and scoots me over into the middle of the row, climbing in behind me.