Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Woman wearing short jean shorts and a fitted beige tank, flip-flops on her feet, toes painted this dusty pink.
The ties of a black bathing suit peeked out from under the tank, coming up to wrap around her delicate neck.
That heavy fall of thick blonde hair rained around her, caressing her bare, slender shoulders.
Face void of makeup. Her style simple and unpretentious.
Though there wasn’t a single thing about her that was plain.
This stunning vision that stole the breath from my lungs, something about her so compelling it somehow felt like I was looking at a piece of myself.
Like I was supposed to know her in every way that mattered.
Like she could so easily possess all the places I couldn’t let her.
She shifted like she could feel the intensity of my gaze devouring her, like she could sense the outright hunger that lit inside me, even though I’d already berated myself a thousand times that my thoughts couldn’t go there.
It was jacked, wanting her the way I did after finding out our connection.
It appeared telling myself that didn’t sway a damned thing.
Because my cock kicked, need slicking like an oil spill through my bloodstream.
For a second, we were frozen, stares locked and fiery.
There was no doubt in my mind that her thoughts were right back to the same place as mine. On what’d gone down between us on Friday night.
The lust that neither of us had come close to sating.
Emery blinked a bunch of times, then moved forward to take Maci’s hand. Her eyes were still pinned on me when she whispered, “We won’t be going in too deep, so I can go like this.”
“What? We gotta go really deep if we’re gonna swim all the way to Australia.”
My focus dipped to Maci, and a low laugh rippled out. “Australia?”
“They got really pretty fishes there, and I fink dolphins, too.”
“Well, I don’t think we’re going to make it all the way to Australia today, but I’m betting we can still have a little fun,” I told her.
“That’s right ’cause that’s my specialty.”
Exaggerating a gasp, I touched my chest. “Well, it seems we are a perfect match because it’s kind of my specialty, too.”
Maci giggled like mad while Emery mumbled, “Yeah, I bet it’s your specialty.”
It was nothing but a sarcastic indictment.
And I didn’t know what came over me. Why I couldn’t help myself. But I eased toward her, getting slammed by her aura, that morning glory scent.
Her body nothing but buzzing electricity as I leaned down close to mutter near her ear. “Oh, the fun I could show you, gorgeous.”
Fuck.
Talk about crossing a line.
But there was nothing I wanted more than to bust through it right then.
Obliterate it.
Emery startled, no time to respond or reprimand before I turned and took Maci’s hand.
Second I did, it felt like a beam of light suddenly speared through the middle of my chest. The amount of warmth that pierced me.
I had never believed in love at first sight.
Thought it total and utter bullshit.
But one look at my daughter, and she’d proven me wrong.
Because right then, holding her hand as I led her down to the shore?
It was the second time when I truly understood what love meant.
Once for my mother, though that belief had been crushed. I thought it would be impossible to ever feel it again.
Had never wanted to feel it again.
But there it was.
Instant and whole.
I glanced back at where Emery remained on the beach.
Little Warrior fighting through her reservations. Expression fierce and posture harsh.
And I wondered if maybe she had the power to change everything inside me, too.
SEVENTEEN
EMERY
“Here we go!” Kane suddenly swept Maci off her feet and into his arms before he went barreling into the water.
I nearly shouted at him to stop. To be careful. Give him some reason that we suddenly had to go.
Only Maci squealed. Squealed this uninhibited laugh that shattered through the air as he ran with her into the shallow edge of the lake.
So free and full of joy.
Her arms stretched overhead as if she were on a rollercoaster ride.
That’s what this felt like.
This constant up and down. The flips of my spirit as I battled with the correct path to take.
“Mr. Kane!” she screeched when water splashed up with the pounding of his feet, and she scrambled around, wrapping her arms around his neck like he was some kind of safety net.
“I’ve got you,” he hollered back. A deep toll of laughter rolled out of him as he spun them around about three feet out from the shore.
The water up to his knees and soaking his jeans.
He turned around so they were looking back at me.
My breath caught.
He was so obscenely handsome it was unfair. Dangerous to my stability.
The way my belly twisted whenever he looked my way. The way my thighs trembled with want.
Every carved, hewn angle of his face was written in severity, and that severity was only multiplied by the muscled strength of his body.