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)
My breath caught. “Meaning?”
“The man with the knife showed up five minutes after we did, which was hours earlier than you were supposed to. That tells me he knew we were there,” he paused, “because he was watching your place.” His gaze pinned mine. “That, on its own, is bad, but it sounds like he was watching because he expected Juric to be there. Why?”
My throat closed up. I’d struggled with the same question, but I had no answer, and that made me feel powerless. “Can we . . . ? I’m not ready. Let’s find something else to talk about.”
“All right. What do you suggest?”
I laced my fingers together in my lap and skewed my lips to one side. My mind stumbled to come up with a new topic, but Shawn abruptly shifted in his seat. The corner of his mouth lifted with an idea, and it was one he found exciting.
“How, exactly,” his tone dipped low and seductive, “were you and Paul incompatible?”
A warning siren blared in my head. “It’s none of your business.”
“Hmm. I disagree.” His expression was determination. “Tell me. I want to know.”
I swallowed hard. “Paul and I wanted different things.”
My generic answer only opened the door for him. “What did you want that he didn’t?”
What I had wanted to feel was desired. For there to be a different goal than the one Paul always had. In the end, it had become so routine he didn’t notice I wasn’t mentally there beneath him.
Could Shawn read my mind? His hand slid onto my knee, just where my skirt ended, and goosebumps burst down my legs.
“He didn’t like to touch me,” I said.
His eyes widened, giving me a great view of the circle of warm brown that hung at the edge of his irises. “How is that possible? I can’t keep my fucking hands off you.”
“I’ve noticed.” It was meant to sound strong, but it didn’t. His hand inched upward, and my heart beat erratically with excitement.
“What else did you want that he wouldn’t give you?” He leaned over, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “Tell me, so that I can.”
Oh, my God. A pleasurable shudder seized my whole body. His hand crept up further, buried beneath my skirt, and the heat of his touch rapidly burned away my reluctance. My knees parted to give him more room.
“He . . .” I couldn’t bring myself to say it, but the pads of his fingers were on my inner thigh now. “Paul didn’t like when I enjoyed it. It made it difficult to continue if I got too loud.”
He went still as if every muscle in his body had tensed, his face frozen halfway between outrage and disbelief. There was only my rapid breathing between us.
“What the fuck was wrong with him,” he said, “to think giving someone else pleasure is a turnoff?” The blacks of his eyes dilated and slowly filled with desire. “You know he has that backward, yes?”
I didn’t have a response. My focus was on his hand and the look he gave me, the one that made my insides melt.
“Let me show you how wrong he was,” he said.
13
SHAWN
Kara flushed that gorgeous red again, the one that matched her “fuck me” shoes.
That’s exactly what I have in mind.
She climbed from the couch, taking a few wobbly steps away from me, her nervous hand pushing a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. It, like this room, was the same honey shade as my family’s beer. I wanted her hair in my hands. In my face as she rode me. Spread out on my bare chest after I’d made her come so hard she couldn’t remember anyone’s name but mine.
I came up off the couch to stand, awaiting her answer with held breath, her icy gaze trapping mine.
“Okay,” she said on a whisper.
I had expected a no. In my excitement, I surged forward, and I moved so fast it instinctively made her stumble back. I shouldn’t have done it, because I wanted her to feel safe, but she disabled my ability to think straight. I smothered her beneath my urgent kiss, my body flattening hers roughly against the wall.
Her soft, hot mouth was addictive, and I was lost in it, drinking up her desire. I didn’t care if this was another ploy, like the one she’d tried at her apartment door last night to get me to forget about her security detail.
Whatever she wanted, I’d give it to her.
It made sense to go slow, but it was fucking impossible. Six long months of wanting her, of not knowing if I’d ever have her, had made me wild, feral. I attacked her with starved madness, and an intensity that was so powerful, it was startling.
There were steps to turning on a woman—I’d learned to work my way down. But I skipped right over that. I grabbed her skirt in fistfuls, pulling the fabric up until her black panties were exposed to me. To give me the access I craved.