Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 90211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
The washing machine whirrs softly from the hall closet.
Tonight has been… interesting.
A disaster for sure, but not the end of the world, assuming Liam’s right and we don’t get caught. And I have a feeling he gets away with this sort of thing all the time.
For me though it’s like wading out into the ocean only to realize there’s a brand-new continent right over the horizon. A world’s opening to me, and I can’t decide how I feel about it. Maybe that’s the whisky in my stomach talking, or maybe it’s the rush I felt when the flames licked up the edges of Kieren’s precious car.
But I really like the way Liam made me feel and I don’t want tonight to end.
Which is reckless. I should be praying for forgiveness right now and hoping God doesn’t punish me for being a freaking idiot. Arson with a stranger? Really? Just because the guy’s hot doesn’t mean I get to commit crimes with him.
Liam really is hot though…
Those eyelashes. The way he looks at me, intense, penetrating, confident. The aura around him, buzzing and hard to ignore. His body’s trim and muscular, and his clothing fits him like it was molded to his shape.
Kieren was handsome too. He had that All-American look to him: clean, trim, healthy.
But Liam’s on another level. There’s something rugged and seductive in the way he moves, predatory and lethal, a strange erotic grace. Thinking about him sets my heart racing.
The door to his room opens.
I stay very still and listen. His footsteps creak the floorboards. The closet door groans and the dryer door thuds open. I draw in a quiet breath and blow it out. For a second I thought he was coming out here and it played like a movie in my head: his shadow falling across me, his naked torso, his needy, hungry eyes, him ghosting over and kneeling down, not saying a word as he kisses me gently at first, probing, curious, until I return his touch—
Shit, this is stupid.
I listen to Liam move the laundry over, chewing my lip.
Am I seriously staying here? Fantasizing about him? I’ve already gone insane and I have alcohol softening my nerves. Why not finish this night the way I really want to?
Before I can stop myself, I kick the blanket off and get to my feet. This is stupid, it’s really stupid, but when I take a step toward the hall I realize:
I want it.
I really want it.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be Regan again. Safe, good, comfortable Regan. I’ll do all the right things, say the proper words, go to work, play by the rules, make my father proud.
That’s who I am and who I’ve always been. I’ll never be anyone else. My organizational lists have organizational lists.
But tonight, I set a car on fire.
I did that with my own hand. I spray painted it first too, and I can’t pretend like Liam pushed me into it.
This isn’t me. It’s someone different.
And this version of Regan wants to take this mistake all the way.
I turn the corner of the hall, heart racing, planning how I’ll knock on his door, slip inside, hesitate on the threshold to see if he sends me away—
When I run directly into him.
He grunts in surprise. I yelp, hands pressed to naked skin, fingers digging into muscles. I look up, shocked, adrenaline flooding my core as he catches my waist, running a hand around to the small of my back to steady me. We’re inches apart. He’s in gym shorts and nothing else; his body is as toned and gorgeous as I knew it would be. Tattoos cover him, shapes and colors too dim to make out right now, and I feel strangely knotted clumps of scars on his chest.
We stare at each other without speaking for a beat.
Until I realize. He was coming to me. Just like I was going to him. There’s no other explanation for why he’s right here at the end of the hall.
“Were you sneaking out, love?” he says very quietly, his voice like a rumble down into my toes.
I shake my head. “I was just…”
His free hand snakes up my arm and slips into my hair. It doesn’t pull, but it tightens. He leans closer. “You were just, what?”
“Doing the same thing you were.” I meet his gaze and dare him to deny it.
But Liam only tilts his chin closer. “And what’s that, love?”
“You were coming to see me.”
His lips quirk. “Why would I do that?”
“Because… you wanted to…” I whimper when his fingers in my hair tug.
“Say it straight. No dancing around what you want, darling.”
“What I want?”
“What we want.”
I hold his attention, looking right into his dark brown eyes. “You were coming to fuck me, weren’t you?”
His smile says everything. It’s desire, it’s promise, but above all, the emotion that almost breaks me then and there, it’s need and hunger.