Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
She closed her eyes.
“I do the same,” she whispered. “There’s not been a night that’s gone by that I haven’t cried myself to sleep.”
I leaned my head forward to rest against hers.
“I miss you so much it hurts,” I whispered. “Give us a chance.”
“What if you die?” she whispered. “What if you leave me by myself like everyone else has? Like you already have?”
“What if I live?” I countered.
“I don’t think I can lose you all over again. It almost killed me the first time,” she promised me.
I took a deep breath, inhaling the air she’d just exhaled.
“I’ve been living as half a man since I called it quits,” I told her. “I miss you with every breath I take,” I said. “I’m tired of not living. Come back to me. We’ll make it work. I swear.”
“You’re going to break my heart, I can tell,” she countered, devastation clear in her voice.
“And it’s mine to put back together,” I said gruffly. “If I break it, I’ll always fix it. Swear to Christ.”
She laughed.
“You have an answer for everything. You always have,” her eyes rolled with annoyance.
I grinned at her.
“So is that a yes?” I asked her.
“Fuck yeah,” she said in defeat. “It’s a yes.”
She leveled a hard glare on me, but the effect was lost on me when her hand rose to run through my hair, causing her nipple to pop free from beneath the sheet and my eyes to become fastened to the sight. “But it won’t be easy. I’m not an easy woman.”
My smile broke out over my face.
“I’m not an easy man,” I told her. “We’ll get to discover each other’s faults.”
“I don’t want you to know any of my faults,” she shook her head. “I’m not exactly of the best stock. Just wait until you get to meet all my classmates and you hear all the bullshit they’ll spew tomorrow.”
I grinned.
“They’re welcome to try to disrespect you,” I told her. “And we’ll cure them of any misconceptions real fucking quick.”
She shook her head.
“You’re going to be good, aren’t you?” she asked hopefully.
I shrugged and lifted up on one elbow so I could let my finger trace around her free nipple.
“Since when have you ever wanted me to be good?” I challenged her.
Her eyes dilated, and her legs shifted restlessly between mine.
“I take it back. I take it all back. Be as bad as you want to be. I’m always your willing servant,” she teased.
I grinned and dropped my mouth down to her hip bones where my marks lay bright and obvious.
She shivered as my tongue slipped out and traced the dark mark.
“I’m here to please.”
Chapter 13
One does not simply walk past his woman in the kitchen and not smack her ass. If she’s there, and your hand is free, you do it.
-Man code
July
I was going to hell.
I’d been leading Dean on.
I wanted to get back at him for leaving me, which was why I’d let him do what he wanted to me even though I should’ve told him no.
This was going to end up in a disaster, and I would have no one but myself to blame.
But I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t tell him no.
I had no resistance left in me when it came to that man.
I couldn’t even pull off this lie.
I wanted to tell him the complete truth, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t.
I wasn’t a vindictive bitch. No, that was Alexa, but not me.
That just wasn’t me. I knew exactly what it felt like to be jerked around, and I could not do that to Dean. Not if I could help it, anyway.
“Dean,” I said the next morning, looking at him as he dressed in his clothes from the night before.
He had to be at work in less than an hour and had spent entirely too long making love to me this morning for it to be possible for him to be on time now.
He was going to try, though.
And I was about to make him even more late.
“What, honey?” Dean asked, taking a seat on the bed and lifting one thigh as he slipped one black sock over a large foot.
“I lied last night,” I blurted.
His big body froze and only his head turned to me.
“Lied about what?” he asked so softly I barely heard him.
“I didn’t actually plan to make a go of it with you last night. Last night I was going to make you hurt like you hurt me a year ago. I was going to make you suffer like I have, but then you woke me up with breakfast in bed this morning, and I realized I couldn’t do that to you,” I said, swallowing hard. “I think it’s best if you leave and don’t come back.”
Because if you don’t, I just might fall deeper in love with you than I already have and when you inevitably leave me again, I won’t survive it a second time.