Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 101764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101764 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
“You ready for today?” Ryder asked as he cupped my ass and ground me against his morning wood.
I groaned. God, that felt good. “I think so,” I managed to say as arousal tried to take over. “This, uh, this is the first time she’s had this kind of procedure, so I’ll have to learn how to change her dressings and clean the wound afterward, but she’ll have a home care nurse for the first few weeks to make sure we’re handling everything okay.”
He nipped at my chin, then kissed me before saying, “I’d like to learn, too, if that’s okay with your mom.”
I pulled back a few inches. “You would? What for?”
Chuckling, Ryder shook his head. “So I can help you. Why do you think?”
My hard-on wilted. “Ryder, that’s sweet, really sweet, but you don’t have to. You’re already doing enough by driving us to the hospital. None of this is your responsibility.”
There were so many fun things he could be doing with his day. Soon, he’d be back in school. He should be enjoying his final few weeks off, not playing nurse to my mother.
“Alex,” he said, drawing out my name as he gave me a little shake. “We’ve talked about this. Why is it so hard for you to accept that we’re a team? That I’m not helping you out of some misplaced obligation but out of a desire to be your partner? You’re busy as hell. I’m not right now. Let me help.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Was it really that simple? If the tables were turned, I’d be offering the same thing to him. Of course I would. So why was it so hard for me to accept what he claimed?
“I know you’re used to doing every little thing on your own. I know you haven’t had anyone you could rely on for a long time, if ever.” He tapped the side of my head gently. “But try to get it through this thick skull of yours that you don’t have to anymore. I’m not going anywhere. Your life is not scaring me away.”
Those words, simple at their core, meant more to me than any grand gesture or romantic display. Yet, I still struggled to embrace them. Maybe it was time to look into therapy. Time to admit my father’s leaving gave me a mountain of abandonment issues, and the major responsibility of taking care of my complicated family from a young age warped my view of family and responsibility.
When I tried to turn away, he grabbed my chin, forcing me to search his eyes, where I found sincerity, heat, and maybe even more. Maybe something I’d be terrified to reach for, especially because I might be feeling it, too, so I put it on the back burner for another time.
“Okay, you’re right,” I said, which made an enormous smile break across his face.
“Who doesn’t love those words?”
Chuckling, I shoved his shoulder. “Always so arrogant.” Then I sobered. “I’m trying, okay? I promise I’m trying to change my thinking and stop worrying that my family’s problems will become too much for you and you’ll run away.”
“Babe, I guarantee my family will implode at some point, and I’ll need you to jump in and peel me off the ground. The only reason it hasn’t already happened is because I’m avoiding them right now.”
Huh, knowing I could repay the favor of support in the future lifted some of my anxiety. “Deal.”
He nodded once, then pinched my ass. “Let’s get moving,” he said as I yelped and rubbed the spot.
“I think I liked it better when we hated each other.”
A strong hand cupped my dick. “Really? You sure about that? I was about to offer you a blow job in the shower. Guess I can rescind the offer if you prefer it the way it was when we hated each other.”
I rolled my hips, pushing into his palm as I fought to keep my eyes from rolling back in my head. I’d never been with anyone who brought me from zero to ready-to-fuck so quickly. All I had to do was see, hear, or smell him, and I wanted him. Then, when he touched me? I instantly and powerfully wanted him.
“I take it back,” I said with a gasp as he scraped his teeth across the tendons in my neck. “This is better. Please put your mouth on my cock.”
“Get in the shower, now,” he whispered with a final squeeze of my dick.
I shot out of the bed so fast you’d think he’d announced a bedbug infestation.
Ten minutes later, after removing a mountain of adaptive equipment from the bathroom, I was under the hot spray with my dick buried so far down Ryder’s throat I’d have worried I’d never get it back if I had any working brain cells. He grunted and groaned like a damn porn star as he drained my balls with a skill that amazed me every damn time he got his mouth on me.