Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
His smile was soft, and warm, and dear God, he looked so handsome it stole my breath. “No,” he admitted. “But you won’t hear any complaints from me.”
“Okay. Well, goodnight, Shawn.”
“Gute Nacht, Kara.”
I turned under the covers, curled up in the big bed away from him.
There was a click, and the room plunged into darkness, and the bed shifted subtly as he moved to lie down and get comfortable. For a long time, the only sound was his quiet, steady breathing, and my hurried heartbeat that thudded in my ears.
I’d told him to stay on his side of the bed, and now I was filled with regret. I didn’t know how to ask for what I wanted. What I needed. It was so lonely with him so far away. What if I asked him to hold me and he misinterpreted it as a request for sex?
“Fuck it,” he whispered, like he’d struggled with this decision.
He slid across the sheets, his warm body pressing against mine and his heavy arm draped over me. Air left me in a burst, which he might have thought was shock, but it was relief. I grabbed his hand and pulled it closer, tighter, fitting myself into his embrace.
The steady, constant beat of his heart lulled me safely to sleep.
A phone buzzed somewhere, rattling on a hard surface. I lifted my head and glared across the way to his phone on the nightstand. I wanted to go back to sleep. I wanted to yank the covers over my head like a child to avoid the day.
I couldn’t do that. There was a man in bed with me for the first time in forever. Shawn’s toned arm was around me, and we were face to face.
“Your mobile’s ringing,” I said.
“I can hear it.”
But he didn’t move. Yesterday, I’d tried to imagine what he would look like when he’d been woken from sleep, but—God. I hadn’t even come close. His sleepy gaze was unassuming and sexy, and he was so close I could almost kiss him.
Doing that would be reckless. I looked down at his arm and back to his face. This version of Shawn, sweet and caring, was the most dangerous of them all. I had absolutely no defense against it.
The phone continued buzzing until it rolled over to voicemail. The whole time his eyes studied me.
“What if that was your brother?” I asked.
“Then he’ll call back.”
The bed shifted as he closed the distance between us, touching his soft lips to mine like he was testing the waters, curious. Electricity jolted through me, and I had to gasp in a deep breath through my nose. His second kiss was more possessive and confident. His lush tongue swept over mine, and I could feel it . . .
Everywhere.
Desire flooded through my veins as he moved again, easing me onto my back. It was so he could climb on top of me, one hand on my hip and the other cupping my face, holding me into his demanding kiss. The bare skin of his chest was warm and smooth beneath my hands. I’d hungered for a man to possess me like this, and yet I suspected there was more to it than that.
I wanted this man, and this man made it clear he wanted me. How much he wanted me was growing harder between us, pressing pleasurably against the center of my legs. The heat of his palm slid down the unmarred side of my neck, steadily inching its way down over my collarbone. Further still, and without thought, my back arched into his touch. I wanted him to find his target.
But his phone buzzed again.
He groaned in annoyance, rolled off me, and snatched his phone off the nightstand. “Hallo?”
With the warmth of his body gone, the fog in my mind cleared and I regained control. I threw the covers off and sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and wished I could scrub the desire from myself just as quickly. The conversation was held in German, so I grabbed my toiletry bag and stumbled to the bathroom.
During my shower, I tried not to think about the man on the bed, or his seductive hands, or the way his kiss lit me on fire.
After my hair was dry, I emerged. Shawn hadn’t moved. He was sitting upright and staring vacantly into space. Still shirtless and still dangerous, even when he looked less like the polished businessman he normally was.
While I’d gotten dressed, a thought had hit me like a ton of bricks. “My fingerprints are all over the murder weapon.”
His brow furrowed. “First of all, you didn’t murder him, it was self-defense. And second, there’s no body. Jason sent a man to your apartment, and it was empty.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Had my attacker recovered enough to slink away? Or had someone else come to recover the body before Jason’s man got there? “What happens now?”