Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
She’d never done a single selfish thing in her life until she asked Teague to help her escape.
Until she tentatively ran her hands up Jude’s chest, sucking in her breath at the way his muscles tensed beneath her fingers. Until she looked up into his stormy dark eyes and said the word that would damn them both. “Stay.”
* * *
Jude didn’t give Sloan a chance to change her mind. He pulled her more firmly against him and kissed her. As much as he wanted to pin her to the doorframe and have her right then and there, a part of him that he didn’t realize existed kept that desire reined in. She was sweet. She might have walked right into the lion’s den and given him permission to ravage her in exactly the way he’d described, but nothing worth having had been attained by rushing headlong into a situation.
He teased her mouth open, guiding the kiss, nipping her bottom lip and then sliding his tongue in to stroke hers. Sloan made a surprised sound, and he froze. No fucking way. But he didn’t stop, easing her into the kiss until her hands were fisting the front of his shirt and she was going onto her tiptoes to get closer to him.
Only then did he kiss down her jaw to her neck, allowing his whiskers to rasp against her sensitive skin, pitching his voice low. “Are you a virgin, sunshine?”
She went still and tense. “How did you—”
Damn it. He kept up his light stroking of her body, the small honorable part of him that he’d thought long dead reared up to demand he back the fuck away from this woman and back away from her now. “You were surprised when I slipped my tongue into your mouth.”
“Not surprised, just…” Her voice was breathy, her body slowly relaxing against him again. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”
That hadn’t even been a kiss. Not really. He’d been testing her, tasting her. Thank Christ I started slow. The woman has never been properly kissed before.
Back off. Back the fuck off now.
He already knew he wasn’t going to. The thought of being the one to show her pleasure—true pleasure—was too intoxicating. He was a bastard for feeling that way, but he’d been worse things than a bastard in his life. So he set his teeth to the lobe of her ear. “I’m going to take you to bed now.” He lifted her, liking the way her legs instantly wrapped around his waist. She was a slight little thing, but fuck if they didn’t fit perfectly.
He walked through the house, hesitating for her murmured directions even though he knew damn well where her bedroom was. Jude kissed her as he laid her on the bed, settling between her thighs.
The move made her sundress ride up to her hips, and he wasted no time stroking her thighs even as he deepened the kiss. Whoever said a woman’s first time had to be painful was a piece of shit. Jude was going to make it good for her. Better than good.
“You change your mind at any time, you tell me to stop. That’s it, sunshine. One word and it’s over.”
She dug her fingers into his hair. Her eyes might be shut, but every part of her body was responsive to a criminal degree. She shivered. “What you said before. I, ah, I want that.”
It cost her to say it aloud. He could feel how tense she was and the words came out in a rush as if she needed to give them voice before she lost her nerve.
“You want my hands on your body.” He coasted his hands up her sides, tugging up her dress as he did. She had to arch up to allow it past her breasts, and his mouth actually watered at the sight of her in her white panties and bra. Jude ran a single finger down the center of her chest, purposefully avoiding her breasts, and over her stomach to the band of her panties. “You want me to drive you out of your mind with my touch.”
He eased back, spreading her thighs as he did. Without his body covering her, she shook, half fighting him as he spread her wider. He paused. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No, I just…” Her breath shuddered out. “I feel exposed.”
“That’s because you are.” He traced the edge of her underwear with each thumb, down the dip where thigh met hip, to where it covered her pussy. “Before the night’s through, sunshine, I’m going to see every single part of you.” He stroked over her clit, earning a gasp that shot straight to his cock. Jude did it again, torturing them both. “I’m going to take off these damn panties, and I’m going to spread your folds and explore parts of you that no one else has. And then I’m going to kiss you there. In fact, I’m tired of waiting.”