Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Silas choked a laugh into the kiss, and a big palm settled on the side of my head so he could angle me just right as he alternated between kissing me deeper and mumbling, “Is this real, baby? Is this real?”
“It’s real,” I whispered back. “It’s the realest thing I’ve ever felt.”
“How’d we get here?” His arms curled around my waist, and he spun us, lifting me a fraction off my feet.
His hold soft and tumultuous.
“Because it’s where we’re supposed to be.”
I had to believe I was brought here for a reason. That I’d been called. That maybe Dereck had been, too. An unknowing partner commissioned to bring me home.
A euphoric giggle rolled up my throat.
It was really difficult to process it, to fully grasp it, my mind spinning with the truth that this was what I wanted.
After I’d chosen to be alone for so long, thinking that hedge I’d surrounded myself was better. That I was stronger that way when I’d never been so certain or powerful right then.
Silas grinned beneath the manic kiss. “What are you laughing about, Little Wildfire?”
My palms skimmed down the rough stubble on his cheeks. Sensation zinged up my arms and streaked through my insides. “That I get this.”
Without breaking the kiss, he lifted me fully from the ground and began to carry me back through the woods.
He released garbled words against my lips. “You get all of this. All of me. I don’t think there was a chance I could have let you leave.”
A needy moan rose in my throat, and my fingers dove into the soft locks of his hair as he kissed me senseless.
He never broke that kiss as he carried me beneath the branches that whisked and rippled above us and to the front door of his house.
He slowed the kiss a fraction as he fumbled around behind me and opened the door with one hand then quietly latched and locked it behind us.
The energy magnified even more as he slowly climbed the stairs, his kiss verging on adoring as he held me with my feet dangling below me into the dusky glow of his room.
The scantest light babbled in from the window and cast the space in a glittery warmth.
Silas laid me down on the plush linens of his bed. He remained at the end of it, gazing down at me where I writhed in anticipation.
We both knew what this had come to.
He appeared a mountainous shadow. Every rocky, abrasive edge of him held in a frailty that I’d never seen him wear before.
“You’re sure you want me?”
God, why did that make my heart ache?
“I have never wanted anyone or anything the way I want you, Silas Mercer. Maybe it’s inexplicable. Maybe it doesn’t make any sense for either of us. But I know where I belong. With you.”
“Wildfire.”
He murmured it.
Praise.
A claim.
A final decision.
Because when his expression shifted, every crease and corner hardened in domination. He curled his hands in the bottom hem of his tee.
Sparks in his hazel eyes as he slowly peeled his shirt up and over his head.
My breath left me.
A heaving gush as I took him in without a shirt. Solid, packed muscle rippled under his skin. Strength defined in every inch.
My attention went to that tattoo that stood out above all the rest.
It’s your heart.
He set one knee onto the bed, and he slowly crawled over me.
My own heart careened as I set my hand over the words.
He bracketed me with his arms, hands planted on either side of my head to hold himself up.
“That’s what you are now.” His murmur was rough. “My heart.”
My nod was as thick as the lump in my throat. “And you’re mine.” I let a little lightness weave into the heaviness as I brushed my fingertips over his full lips.
“And I’m not about to share you, King.”
He gruffed a sound of amused rebuttal and nipped his teeth at my fingertips. “You telling the president what to do now?”
“Did you expect anything less?”
“No, baby.” He whispered that. Awe fluttering out. “I met my match. The one who was sent to show me my place. Exactly where I was meant to be.”
His stare grew vehement, the mood slipping into seriousness, his eyes flicking all over my face as he reached out and brushed back a curl from my face. “I won’t be touching anyone else but you for the rest of my life.”
My life.
I heard the promise behind it.
“Good because you’re the only person I want touching me.”
He wrapped his hand around my wrist as my fingers continued to flutter over his lips. He kissed across them, inhaling a deep, tremulous breath. “The ways I’m going to touch you, Brinley. The ways I’m going to have you.”
Desire gathered on the horizon. Lighting up my insides in orange and red flames.
“I like the sound of that.”