Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
“No!” Why was this so hard? I drew in a deep breath and met his gaze. “I have spent the last year trying to convince myself that us breaking up was for the best.” God, could I have done without seeing the longing in his eyes. Because it mirrored my own. “That I was happy without you, and…” The rest of that sentence lodged in my throat like a ball of barbed wire. It was the most honest I’d been with anyone, including myself, in a long time. I’d needed to grow without him. To learn to, maybe not love, but at least like myself, but it had hurt. Every day without him felt like a self-inflicted punishment. I’d been clinging to a pole and taking the lashes for so long, I’d grown numb to it…until I’d had to move into his house, that was.
As I stood across from him, I wasn’t sure why I was still clutching the pole. Why was I forcing him to take the lashes right alongside me? “I’m still not convinced,” I whispered.
His nostrils flared. “Fucking good.”
Before I could clock his movements, he was pinning me to the living room wall; his warm mouth on mine, mumbling that he never should have let me go. That he should have chased me down when he couldn’t call me. Relief filled me, that I wasn’t alone, that he’d longed for me as much as I had him. The regrets swirled between us until I was clinging to him. All I could think about was his lips on mine and the firm press of his hand on my waist. His touch felt like a brand on my soul. One I always wanted to wear.
We were nothing more than a tangle of tongues, desperate apologies, and fevered promises. Hands moving over my body, gripping and groping with the fluidity of waves crashing on shore.
It was like I’d had some kind of dam inside me, keeping all my feelings for Wolf carefully controlled. Now, he smashed right through it, flooding me with everything I’d been denying. Love and lust, and longing so damn strong, I thought I might die if he stopped right then.
“Fuck, Jade.” His heated breath touched my neck right before his teeth grazed my throat on a groan.
I barely registered him pulling my work shorts down. I didn’t care when my white cotton underwear followed. I was too lost in him. All I could focus on was the way he smoothed over every imperfect curve as though it were art to be admired.
Wolf made me feel like there was no other woman who could ever satiate him but me, and I didn’t know how I had ever doubted that. “Tell me it wasn’t a mistake. Tell me you don’t regret ending things, and I’ll stop.”
My head hit the wall when his finger plunged inside me, touching places only he could. If ever there was an incentive to keep my mouth shut, it was that.
“I didn’t end things,” I gasped. “I never wanted that.” It was only ever supposed to be a break. I’d tried to text him after two days. Another hard thrust of his fingers had me struggling for breath. “It was a mistake. It was all a mistake.”
His lips crashed over mine again, and I got lost in him. Everything became primal instinct as I reached for the band of his sweatpants and shoved them down. I needed him, the same way I always had and always would, to make me feel whole.
He broke our kiss long enough to rip his shirt over his head, then gripped my waist, lifting me like I weighed nothing. His hips fit perfectly between my thighs, his skin hot against mine. His hard dick pressed right against me until I felt dizzy with need.
“If you don’t want this, tell me to stop,” he whispered against my mouth, gaze studying mine.
I couldn’t have if the devil himself demanded it. My fingers raked into his hair, like I could force him to stay right there. “Don’t stop.”
His hands shifted to my ass before he slid inside me in one hard, possessive thrust. My head hit the wall as a sense of belonging washed over me. It was as if he were staking a flag, reclaiming lost lands. And fuck, how I wanted him to possess me, to carve his name into my heart so I’d never forget this feeling ever again. Never be able to deny it to myself.
“Fuck,” he groaned, sinking deeper as his lips skimmed my throat. “You always feel so good.”
I’d almost forgotten what this felt like. Wolf filled all the empty spaces inside me that had been hollow ever since we’d been apart.
“Fuck.” His teeth grazed the sensitive skin of my throat. “I love you.”
A lump formed in my throat, hearing him say the words I never thought I’d hear from him again. I wanted to say it back, to confess what felt like a secret I’d been carrying, but something stopped me. The scent of the whiskey on his breath, maybe. The reminder that he wasn’t sober. That he might not be doing, or saying any of this, if he were. It wasn’t enough to make me quit, though. Just bite my tongue and keep my secrets.