Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Or was that a no, but one last go ’round before it’s over?
“We, uh…didn’t use protection that time,” I remarked.
“You’re on the pill,” he stated impassively.
I closed my eyes.
Door number two.
As always.
“And you’re my woman,” he went on. “And I want kids too. Maybe not now—”
My heart swelled so big, it felt like it might choke me.
But I couldn’t care less.
I was a flurry of activity to get on him and kiss him all over his face.
I was straddling him, we were chest to chest, and his hands were again at my ass when I finally lifted up and gazed down at him.
This man was mine.
This handsome, talented, interesting man was all mine.
Officially.
And I was happy.
Officially.
Sooooooo very happy.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you, baby,” he said gently.
“To tell me you’re my boyfriend?” I asked gleefully.
An insanely beautiful smile hit his lips. “Think we’re past that, seein’ as you’re my woman, that makes me your man.”
I was so at one with this added elevation to our relationship status, I did the kissing him all over his face thing again.
He started chuckling, wrapping his arms around me as he did it, and then he said, “Your aim is shit.”
I took his mouth.
He gave it to me and then took mine.
I oh-so gave it to him.
When he broke, he whispered, “You’re leaking all over my stomach.”
I would have bounced off to take care of that chore, but his arms were still around me.
He did an epic ab crunch, and then, with my arms and legs around him, he walked me to the bathroom.
Tonks danced in the door, gave an ecstatic roo-roo! (or at least I read it as ecstatic), then she danced out.
“I think Tonks senses I’m happy,” I told Hutch as he set my ass on the counter of the vanity.
“Probably,” he said through a smile and turned on the tap.
He hiked his jeans up, did a couple of buttons to keep them there (how they hadn’t already fallen off his slim hips was a mystery) and found a washcloth.
He saw to me, he saw to his belly, then we did the him-carrying-me, me-wrapped-around-him thing back to bed.
But this time, he set me in it, then took off his jeans before he joined me.
And by joining me, I meant putting me under the covers and stretching his long body on top of mine.
He smoothed the hair from my face then took that face in.
“You were nervous,” he noted.
“Yeah,” I pointed out the obvious.
“Fucked it,” he said. “Shouldn’t have let you get to that place.”
“Hutch—”
“I’ve known for weeks too, May,” he admitted.
I was warm, comfy, happy, with my man on me in his bed.
But that made me more of all three.
A ton more.
“I knew when I agreed to that fucked-up deal,” he went on.
I felt my lips turn down. “It wasn’t fucked up.”
“Babe, I’ve been torturing myself for weeks that, if I told you where my heart was taking me, you’d get shot of my ass.”
“Well, I’ve been doing the same, Hutch. Though, because of moi, we’ve both been getting laid doing it.”
My body shook with his humor (more warm, comfy and happy), as he shook his head, but he said, “This is true.”
“I know it is.”
“And now it’s over.”
“Well, that part is, this”—I squeezed him with my arms—“is far from it.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly.
Oh God.
After he said that, I didn’t know if I kissed him, or he kissed me, but whatever.
We kissed.
That go around, we got totally naked.
And it was lingering.
He took his time.
He gave me mine.
There wasn’t an inch of him I didn’t touch.
There wasn’t an inch of me he didn’t already know.
And again, he didn’t use a condom.
After we cleaned up, I headed back to bed, and he headed through the house to make sure it was shut down, and all the beings in it were doing okay, before he joined me under the warm covers in the dark.
When we tangled up, I promised, “We can take it slow.”
“I trust you, May.”
“I know, I just want you to know I can give you time to make sure you do.”
His arms moved from around me so he could frame my face in the shadows.
“We have all the time in the world, May.”
Tears hit my eyes, and even if he probably couldn’t see me, I pulled out of his hold and shoved my face in his throat to hide them.
I deep breathed to keep it together as Hutch stroked my hair to help.
When I got a handle on it, I told him, “I’m your Clementine.”
“What?”
“And you’re my Chisolm.”
“Baby…what?”
I tipped my head back to look at him in the dark. “It was shit. Pure shit. I met good people along the way. There were fun times. But my whole life was shit, Hutch. Until I met you.”
He growled delightfully before he kissed me again.