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)
She gave a little frantic shake of her head, that armor dropping. “No.”
“Do you want me to?”
“Yes.”
My hands shook where I had them locked on her knees. I didn’t know if it was originating from her or me.
“How long has it been? How long has it been since you felt safe with a man?”
A quiver rolled her delicate throat, and she attempted to swallow the heaviness. “Five years.”
A growl rolled in my chest, and I splayed my hands wide as I slowly glided them up the tops of her thighs. Attention fixed to her face, searching for any discomfort or fear.
She arched back, and her shoulders hit the backrest of the sofa as the rest of her bowed toward me.
She released a raspy, frenzied breath, and in it, her admission slipped free. “I’m not so sure I feel safe with you.”
I froze, a stake to my fucking heart. “Would never hurt you. Not like that.”
Her hands were suddenly over mine, urging them farther up her legs, her body arching more with each inch.
“Maybe I’m a total fool for believing it, but I do. It’s the rest of you that terrifies me. The way you make me feel every time you come into the room. The way you seem to understand me. See me. I think you could crush me, Silas.”
My chest tightened.
“Be clear, Brinley, I’m not worth any of that. There’s nothing left inside me that makes me worthy of whatever you think you’re feeling. Nothing decent or good. I ruin everyone that gets close.”
Something flared in her gaze that made me certain she was going to argue with me, so I ducked down, lips hitting the soft flesh at the top of her right thigh.
A feverish exhalation puffed out of her, and she murmured, “Yes.”
A clear invitation.
I slowly kissed over the delicious skin that could compete with the taste of Meems’s apple pie, though I’d never dare tell my grandmother.
This woman nothing but a perfect fantasy.
A perfect, torturous dream.
My cock screamed at my zipper.
I beat the lust back and forced myself to focus on what this was all about.
“Tell me where he hurt you, baby, and I’ll mark myself right over the top of it. Mark myself so deep that I’ll be the only thing you can feel. The only thing you can remember.”
I mumbled it as I kept kissing over the golden flesh of her legs.
Fingers wound in my hair, and Brinley arched higher as she yanked at the locks. “Everywhere.”
It was pain.
A plea.
Desperation.
Hunger battled with the rage that thrashed at my insides. Both were so stark, I didn’t know which was most critical.
Doubted she could never truly forget, but fuck, I was going to try.
A balm for the scars that had never fully healed.
Show her she no longer had to be a prisoner.
She was fucking free.
Free in me.
Those fingers curled tighter in my hair, right on time as I kissed higher.
I barely recognized my own voice as I spread her knees and murmured my lips up the inside of her thigh. “I’m going to make you feel so good, Brinley. Write myself all over you. Sink so deep that you’re going to forget what it was like before I met you.”
Claim you.
Put a property patch on her back so the whole fucking world would know who she belonged to.
I knew a whole hell of a lot better than that. Knew what it would cause.
Not to mention I was tangling with the club’s collateral.
But right then I couldn’t seem to convince myself otherwise.
Brinley let go of this desirous whimper as I edged higher, a gush of her words slipping off her tongue. “Give me everything you can.”
“Wildfire. Trying to do me in.”
“I think it’s me who’s done in.”
I chuckled as I ran my nose along the edge of her lace underwear, nearly knocked out by the lust-inducing scent.
Guts in knots as I confessed, “Nah, baby, I knew you were going to do me in the second you climbed out of your brother’s car.”
“I wanted to hate you.” It was a whisper she released into the dense, lapping air.
“You should still hate me,” I warned.
“I wish that I did.”
And I could feel both of us teetering on that ledge. Tripping in a direction neither of us could afford to go.
I forced myself to look up at her so she could see the truth of what I was saying.
“I’m not a good man, Brinley.”
She made a ‘no shit’ sound. Clearly, I’d already more than proven it.
But she didn’t know the lengths.
“That doesn’t seem to matter, does it?” she pressed. “Because no matter how hard I fight it, it only grows. This burn that lights me up every time you get near me. It’s big and powerful, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do to stop it.”
A shock of dubious laughter rocked from me. “You think you’re not having the exact same effect? The fact I have you in this room alone is enough to warn me to stay far the fuck away from you, and I’m powerless to do it.”