Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“How did you know?” she asks. I feel Emmett standing at my back, the heat from his body seeping into me.
“We walked in the forest the other day, and you stopped and collected a bunch of branches,” I remind her. “Never would I think you would do this.” I point at the desk and look over my shoulder at Emmett. “Isn’t it cool?”
“It is,” he agrees with me, then leans in even closer, his mouth coming to my ear, my pulse speeding up. “What is it?” I put my hand to my mouth to stop the laugh that wants to escape, and lucky for us, one of Lucy’s classmates comes in and calls her over. She walks to her, and the two of them walk out of the classroom, leaving us alone.
I turn my head to the side and come almost nose to nose with him. “It’s a…” I feel his hand go to my hip, the words escaping my mind. Everything escapes me when I feel his touch on me. “It’s a—” I lick my lips because my mouth is suddenly dry. His eyes lust over when I lick my lips, and I wonder if he’s feeling the effect of me like I feel about him. “It’s a spiderweb wreath,” I say with my voice cracking at the end, and I have to clear my throat.
“Huh,” he grunts and then looks at the desk but doesn’t move away from me. I grab the pencil on the desk with the sheet beside it and see three other people bid on it. I put my name down and place a bid of one hundred dollars before putting the pencil down. He lets go of my hip, but only to reach for the pencil beside me. Instead of going around me, he stays at my back, reaching around me. His other hand comes up to my side, his middle fingers touching the skin that is exposed from the T-shirt riding up on that side. I close my eyes for a second to get my bearings, and when I open them, he’s writing down his name and then placing a bid for five hundred dollars.
“Emmett,” I whisper-hiss at him when he finishes and tosses down the pencil. The hand at my side drops at the same time.
“I’m not going to be outbid,” he declares. I turn to face him but stop halfway when I realize we’ll lose that connection, so I stop with my shoulder in the middle of his chest. “That’s my daughter’s art.” He looks down at me. “It’s coming home with me.”
“My, my,” Ms. Summer says, coming to us and looking down at the sheet, “that’s very generous of you.”
“It is,” I agree with her. “I’m going to look around.” I avoid looking at the two of them before walking away from him. “I’ll see if I can find Lucy.” Walking away from him, I still feel his hand on my hip. I exit the classroom and turn right toward the darkness of the hallway instead of walking toward the light, needing a minute by myself. The yellow tape tells everyone they shouldn’t come down here, but I duck under it for a second.
Turning the corner away from the noise, I lean my back against the wall and close my eyes and put my head back on the concrete wall, trying to get my breathing under control, when I hear my name. “Lilah,” he says softly, stepping into the dark corridor with me, ducking under the same yellow tape, “what are you doing?”
Chapter Seventeen
EMMETT
I turn to the side and watch her walk away from me, my body missing the heat from her. My fingers reflexively move, wanting to grab her hand before she rushed out of here.
“You don’t have to bid so much,” Ms. Summer tells me. “We usually just end up giving it to the parents’ top bid.”
I look down at the paper, seeing Lilah’s name and then my name. “No worries.” I turn to her. “Excuse me, I’m going to go and make sure Lilah found Lucy.” I turn to walk out of the classroom, looking to the side and seeing she isn’t walking down the corridor, so it means she went the other way.
Making my way to the end of the hallway, I see it’s darker than the other side and then see a yellow tape up to keep you from going forward. I look to the side, seeing her in the almost darkened hallway with her back against the concrete wall. She has her head back and eyes closed. Walk away, I tell myself, leave her be. But my body and my brain are not on the same page when it comes to her.
My goal was to stay as far away from her as I could. That goal was quickly erased when I saw her standing in the parking lot talking to Ms. Maddie and her husband, Oliver, wearing that fucking red skirt, which looks like it would be easy to slip my hand under. The white shirt molded on her made my dick hard the minute I saw her. Ever since I tasted her, that’s all I want, to taste her more. “Lilah,” I call softly, ducking under the yellow tape, “what are you doing?”