Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147545 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
And maybe I never will.
CHAPTER 43
CASSIE
The rain stops after Nina leaves, and the rest of my shift is rather calm. At one point, while leaning out the window to deliver an order, I even spot a rainbow in the distance.
The heaviness that has been weighing on me lifts, too.
I don’t turn my phone back on until I leave because I needed a little more time to process everything, but by the time I’m pulling out of the parking lot, I feel a sense of peace.
When I get to my apartment, I don’t even bother pushing my key into the lock. I turn the knob, knowing it will open, and it does.
He’s here.
I’m not sure I should feel relief, but I do.
I kick off my work shoes and leave them by the door, then pad into the living room.
Tor sits on my couch, waiting for me. He’s wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, spread out comfortably with one arm stretched across the back like he owns the place.
Which he does.
He watches me enter the room. I drop my keys and purse on the coffee table and stand there, looking at him.
“Nina came to see me at work today.”
“Yeah?” he says, but he’s not surprised.
I nod, focusing hard on his face as I ask the next question. “Did you fuck her the other night?”
His expression freezes for a split second, a flicker of shock passing through his pretty blue eyes before the hardness banishes it. “What?” he demands. “No, of course I didn’t. Did she say I did?”
A faint smile tugs at my lips, and I shake my head. “No, she didn’t.”
But I had to make sure. I had suspicions about him dispatching Nina tonight, and I needed to check that he didn’t cross a line if he did use unsavory methods of persuading her. From the start of our relationship, a clear boundary was set that disloyalty is the end of the line for us, the only thing we can’t come back from. He knows how I feel about Nina. He knows I would consider that the ultimate betrayal. If he would blow up our foundation as a means to an end or even fuck her in a fit of anger over my leaving, then he’s not who I think he is, and the reality of him would be something I couldn’t accept.
I’ve had a lot of doubts tonight, so I needed to see his reaction for myself. There couldn’t be any lingering doubts about that.
I don’t have any, so I unfasten my pants and shove them down, stepping out of them as I take a step closer to him. My panties come off next.
Tor is surprised, but not unpleasantly.
“I know we need to talk,” I tell him, climbing on his lap so I’m straddling him. “Let’s do it later.”
Nothing remotely unpleasant lingers in his eyes as he holds my gaze, his lips tugging up. “Works for me.”
I smile faintly, sliding my fingers through his hair, then closing my eyes and kissing him.
His hands find my hips, sliding until one arm locks around me, pulling me close. A ripple of desire moves through me, and I wiggle my hips, grinding against him.
He sighs against my mouth, caressing my jaw and then cradling the side of my face. I feel him needing to capture me, to control me, but he doesn’t want to spook me.
I break away from his mouth but only to trail my kisses across his jaw and down his neck.
I missed him so fucking much.
I found a rhythm without him, but I felt the aching emptiness of what I was missing, something I never would have known to miss before. What Tor and I have exists on deeper levels than most people can ever reach in their relationships. We don’t shy away from each other. Whatever lies might exist in the world, what’s between us is raw and honest. Our souls are wrapped around each other like thorny vines, and to separate them would be painful and tragic. It would kill something in each of us, maybe something that lives in the darkness, but we see it in each other. We love it in each other.
He lifts up to push down his pants, and as soon as I can reach his cock, I bring it to my entrance. I kiss his neck, then let him feel my sigh against his skin as he sinks inside me.
“Fuck,” he says, sighing with the same relief.
His hand flexes on my lower back. I can feel him wanting to take control. Feel him holding back for me.
“I love you, Tor.”
His grip tightens, biting into my hips. “I love you, too. So fucking much.”
He lets me ride him at the pace I want, then the pace I need. I ride him until I come, and then as I lay with my head against his shoulder, his cock still moving inside my convulsing pussy, he comes, too.