Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Instead of all this, lying in bed beside me was a Javier Montoya who’d experienced none of that.
He’d gone to school, like most kids do.
He’d had a home, like most kids do.
He had two healthy and functioning parents, like all kids should have.
He didn’t have to worry where his next meal would come from, like all kids shouldn’t.
Though he still had this kick-butt, new townhome he was in the midst of doing up with things he liked, like displaying his growing collection of expensive kicks on the wall.
Also, he still had a job he enjoyed and friends who loved and respected him.
But he had all of these things with a mom who made awesome Thanksgiving dinners he looked forward to every year, and a dad who clapped him on the shoulder with pride every time he saw him.
Falling into this fantasy at seeing Javi sleeping so peacefully, it didn’t occur to me that we’d apparently had one weird date after a lot of dancing around each other, this ending with Javi lashing out at me, something we hadn’t yet fully processed, and now we’d slept in the same bed together…twice. And neither time had I known it was happening.
No, that didn’t occur to me.
Happily ensconced in my fantasy for Javi, I didn’t think of that.
I also didn’t hesitate to do something I’d wanted to do practically upon meeting him: reach out a hand in order to trace the perfect arch of his thick, dark brow.
But I gasped when my hand was still several inches away and Javi’s eyes shot open just as his fingers caught my wrist in a punishing grip.
It was then I watched as the weight of the life he’d led settled immediately on his features, and into my consciousness. This came from the strength of his grasp of my wrist, not to mention the speed with which he caught it, and the clear demonstration of the latent instincts that came to the fore instantaneously when he sensed something was on approach when he was vulnerable.
Right then and there, in his bed, staring into eyes that had not even an iota of sleep lingering in them, my heart shriveled in my chest as the wholeness of his life, and the devastation of it, settled into me.
His grip loosened, his eyes grew lazy, and he pressed my hand to his bare chest as he muttered, “Sorry, baby.”
He had nothing to be sorry for.
But me?
I couldn’t fight it anymore.
It wasn’t that I no longer had the strength.
It was that I no longer wanted to.
It was as if Javi read my mind, because as I scooched across the minimal distance his way, he tugged my arm around to his back, pulling me even closer.
Our bodies touched.
He bent his neck, I tipped my head back, he hesitated a fraction of a second, and in that fraction of a second, I pushed up, and our lips touched.
His were strong, insistent.
Mine were ready, willing.
They opened.
His tongue darted inside.
I whimpered.
And then, seconds into our very first kiss, I was on my back in his bed, Javi’s weight on me, one of his hands curled around the back of my neck, tilting my head, the fingers of his other hand finding the hem of my tee and diving under it as his mouth devoured mine.
It was a heady mix of too much way too fast and not enough after way too long.
I leaned into the latter part of that, arched into him and wrapped a calf around his thigh.
He ground into me and growled in my mouth, his fingers gliding up the skin over my ribs to my breast.
He cupped it and swiped his thumb tight over my already-hard nipple.
A delicious electric jolt bolted through me, so fabulous, I couldn’t stop myself from tearing my mouth from his in order to release a needy moan.
With that, his fingers tightened on my breast in a hold so possessive, so branding, I opened my eyes and saw him watching me with an expression that was so possessive, so branding, my sex flooded.
With no choice left to me, I unhooked my calf from his thigh, planted my foot in the bed, and with every ounce of my strength, I heaved up and rolled him over so I was on top.
“Baby,” he purred.
If I had any restraint left (I didn’t), that purr would have done me in.
But as it stood, it just did me in.
I latched onto his head with both hands and kissed him, this time with my tongue darting into his mouth to take my fill.
He tasted so…
Javi.
Perfect.
On a delectable grunt, Javi closed his arms around me, one hand going up into my hair, pulling my ponytail holder out, making all my hair tumble down around us, one hand going down to grab a cheek of my behind in that possessive/branding hold I’d already fallen head over heels for.