Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Then what is it?” he asked, his hand sliding up my back to slip into my hair.
My defenses were too low to lie convincingly. But maybe a half-truth would suffice.
“I think I just really needed a hug,” I told him, cringing at my own words.
I don’t know what I expected in response to that. Silence, maybe. Or, if my past was any indication, mocking.
Instead, Rook’s arm squeezed me tighter again. “Me too,” he admitted.
His fingers went to my scalp, doing those little circles that had me both simultaneously relaxing and coming alive with a slow, unfurling sort of desire.
It was my damn growling stomach that ruined the moment.
“Yeah,” Rook agreed. I could hear the smile in his voice. “What did we each get? Three bites?”
Then he was folding up and I had no choice but to move with him.
The disappointment at the moment lost stuck with me as we drank more champagne and picked at the grazing boards of food.
The night grew darker around us, but with our little light being powered by a small solar generator hidden behind some aesthetic piled baskets, we could see what we were doing as we started to clean up the food.
I figured we were seconds away from getting up and walking back to the car.
But out of nowhere, Rook’s hands sank into my hips.
Then he pulled me to straddle his lap.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Tessa
I was too surprised to resist.
But let’s face it, even if he told me his intention, I’d have been helpless but to follow.
If I were being honest with myself, I would admit that it was inevitable that we would give in to what was growing between us at some point.
So as he pulled, I followed his lead, parting my legs to the sides of his crossed ones, my arms sliding over his shoulders as his squeezed my hips.
His warm gaze was on my face, the planes of his face set in moody shadows thanks to the ambient lighting.
My belly flipped as he sucked in a deep breath, shook his head, and declared, “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
Then his lips were on mine again.
Soft.
Sweet.
Full of the yearning I’d been feeling since we’d met.
A whimper escaped me as my arms tightened around the back of his neck, pressing my chest to his.
The move had a rumble escaping Rook. His hands slid down from my hips to my ass, sinking in, dragging me down onto his lap. Where the proof of his desire pressed against the fly of his jeans and the barely-there material of my panties.
There was no stopping the moan that escaped me as my hips instinctively dropped down, grinding against his hardness.
Rook’s lips grew harder and hungrier as his hands slipped down my thighs, then up under my skirt to tease back up my bare skin.
Little goosebumps rose on my skin, and a shiver moved through me at the soft touch.
His hands went to my butt, sinking in, dragging me against him again.
My head fell back on a moan, and Rook took it as an invitation, his lips going to my throat, kissing across the sensitive skin as my hips did another little rock against him.
His lips and tongue and beard grazed my heated, sensitive skin as his hands slid out from my skirt to slide up my sides.
He grabbed my arms, pulling them down from his shoulders, then slid my straps off of my shoulders and pulled the bodice of my dress down to bare me to the night air… and him.
A shiver racked my system as the cool air kissed my skin, and Rook let out a rumbling sound as my nipples hardened.
Instead of reaching for me, though, his hands went to my sides, pulling me up, taking me away from the friction my body was screaming for.
But as soon as he had me high enough, he leaned inward, pressing a kiss to the center of my chest before turning to the side and sucking one of my nipples into his mouth.
A shocked gasp escaped me as heat pulsed from the touch of his lips to somewhere deep in my core.
Rook sucked hard as my head fell back, lost in the sensation.
Then his tongue was circling, his teeth grazing. Before he was moving across my chest to continue teasing.
It was torture.
Hot, slick, maddening torture.
My body trembled with the unmet need as Rook kept dragging it out, knowing exactly what he was doing to me as I whimpered and sighed and moaned.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take it for another second, his head lifted and his hand slid under my skirt and into my panties.
“So wet for me,” he murmured as his fingers traced between my lips toward my clit, then pressed down hard.
It was almost my undoing.
That was how much I’d been aching for him, how much I’d been dying for this very moment.