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)
I was fucked.
So fucking fucked.
“That was the best thing I’ve ever felt,” she mumbled around that dopey grin.
I cocked a smirk. “Told you I was going to take care of you.”
Redness touched her cheeks, Brinley going fully vulnerable.
“It turns out, I like the way you take care of me, Silas Mercer.”
“That’s good because I plan on doing it again and again.”
Her teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, and she sat up, that fall of hair raining around her shoulders, eyes firing with greed and interest and the barest flickers of uncertainty as she slid a hand from my stomach down to my aching cock.
Rubbing me over my jeans, she barely peeked up at my face. “It seems like maybe I need to take care of you, too.”
I choked, nearly knocked from my feet by the greed that surged through my body.
Gritting my teeth, I curled my hand around her wrist, stopping her. I knew if my dick got free of its confines, I was going to fuck her senseless, and I wasn’t positive she was ready for that.
Hell, I wasn’t sure either of us were ready for that or if we would ever really be.
My dick strained, wailing in reproach, hating that the bare specks of my conscience were cutting this off while the rest of me felt like we were just getting started.
But I had to admit, even touching her this way was bliss, and that was going to have to be enough.
“No, baby.”
Her face pinched. “You don’t…?”
I could feel the questions.
The hurt and the rejection.
I shot forward and framed her face in my hands.
The feel of her against my palms singed me all over again.
“If you think I don’t want you, Brinley, you’re horribly mistaken. I’ve never wanted anything more in all my life. But you, Little Wildfire, are a treasure, and I fucking refuse to tarnish that.”
The fingers of her left hand swept over the back of my hand. “That’s funny since every time you touch me, everything feels a little bit better.”
More of the vulnerability.
Trust.
Truth.
Amber gaze churning with every dangerous emotion she shouldn’t feel.
Or maybe it was only my heart that was slanting toward the treacherous.
And I shouldn’t fucking do it. I knew it. But I eased forward and took that tempting mouth.
Only this time I kissed her slow.
Desperate and deep and with the few shards of myself that I had left to give.
A call of my spirit and a plea of my tongue.
Brinley kissed me back.
Every bit as ardently.
I felt cracks splintering the floor below me.
I forced myself to pull back, except my next action was every bit as reckless since I gathered her up, pulled her into my arms, and carried her to my bed.
I propped her on the side of it, then snatched a tee from my dresser, my eyes on her the whole time as I returned to her. Reaching out, I slowly, carefully, peeled her out of her dress then worked my tee over her head.
She swam in it, and there was something brand new stretching across my chest as I stared down at her sitting there wearing my shirt.
Wild curls cascading around her. A softness I’d never seen before etched on her face.
I stripped down to my underwear, then climbed onto the bed, nestled her in at my side so we were looking at each other.
Face-to-face.
Staring at each other through the ghosts that frolicked in the night.
I took her hand and held it up between us as I threaded my fingers through hers and murmured, “Tell me, I need to know.”
THIRTY-THREE
SILAS
“Are you sure you want to hear my sob story?” She attempted to play it light, but I wasn’t blind. I could see her mouth tweak down on the side.
Could feel the way her entire being shook with the thought of having to conjure what I was pretty sure she’d tried to bury beneath a castle tower.
But I figured it was futile. No stopping or altering the collision we were headed for.
Fuck, she was so pretty. No way to get enough, my eyes flicked all over her face.
Squandering the sight.
Knowing it was fleeting, no chance of something so good meant for me.
So I memorized every line and curve and divot instead. Tucking it down into those vacant places that I held for the ones who meant something to me.
Listening to the way her heart thundered and battered in the space between us, mine doing its best to match.
To keep up.
To keep time.
Insane the number of beasts I’d faced down, and I was positive it was going to be this beautiful creature who would be my demise.
“Is it wrong that I want to know every single thing about you?” I murmured as I played with one of those curls before I let my fingertips trail down the angle of her jaw.