Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
A blush crept over my flesh.
“I missed you so much.” It left me on a whisper.
His thick throat bobbed as he swallowed. “That’s all I’ve done for my entire life. Missed you. But no more, Daisy. No more denying what has been there all along. No more denying this.”
“What is this?” I needed to hear him say it. I went into that courthouse this afternoon believing our marriage was fake.
“It’s you and me, Daisy. Us. Forever. Because once I have you, I’m never letting you go.”
He started to slowly tick through the buttons of his dress shirt. Those eyes pinned on me the whole time.
I stood there shivering beneath his severity.
Anticipation wound in my belly, and tingles wisped across my skin as I watched him peel himself out of the shirt and drop it to the floor.
He stood there in his dress pants with his chest and abdomen bare.
Adorned in all those gruesome designs.
Muscles bulged and flexed beneath the art, playing out like a scene that only I could see.
I couldn’t do anything but step forward, my breath shallow as I reached out with a shaky hand and trembled my fingers over a daisy I noticed for the first time on his front. One that was woven in a gnarled skeleton’s face.
“It was always you, Daisy. You were the voice echoing in my ear and the blood that pumped through my veins. You were my heart and my spirit and my soul. You were the love that lived on inside me when everything else was dead. Because that’s all that I’ve got for you. Love.”
My spirit thrashed. Vying to get to him as he pressed my hand even harder against the ravaging at his chest.
“Cash.”
His voice only deepened. “I’m so fuckin’ in love with you, Daisy. With all of me. With everything I have. The second I put that ring on your finger, I knew it. Knew there was no more containing it. I love you with everything I have. With every fiber of my being. I may not be a good man, but you have any bit of good that’s left in me.”
“I love you,” I rushed. “I love you so much, Cash. I tried to suppress it. I tried to pretend it wasn’t real and it didn’t exist. But that was the biggest lie I ever told. Acting like I didn’t already belong to you when I came here.”
The rumble of his chest was affection.
Possession and greed.
He took one step back.
“Let me see you, wife.” His words were a roughened command.
Redness flashed hot across my skin, and I chewed at the inside of my cheek before I smoothed my hands down the front bodice of the dress.
A shot of that boldness came on as he growled at the sight.
“Do you like it?” I murmured. I twisted to the side and arched a bare shoulder.
“No. I don’t like it, Daisy. I fuckin’ love it. Love seeing you wrapped up like a gift for me to tear into.” His tongue stroked over his lips. “That’s what you are. A gift that I don’t deserve, but one I’m going to treasure for the rest of my life.”
“You’d better start.” It came out coy, as if I could ever play seductive, but Cash didn’t seem to mind.
A wicked grin hitched on the edge of his mouth. One that sent nerves and anticipation scattering through my being.
“Oh, don’t worry, Little Wallflower. I plan on having my way with you. In every way. Over and over again because I’m never going to get enough.”
A shiver tumbled down my spine, and Cash stepped forward. “Turn around.”
I complied, and tingles raced as he brushed his fingertips down my nape before they found the hook at the top of the zipper. I inhaled a staggered breath as he unsnapped it, and the sound of the delicate zipper riding down echoed through the room.
The fabric whooshed across my flesh as the dress fluttered down to pool at my feet.
Leaving me only in the heels and the lingerie that the girls had insisted on me wearing.
The cream-colored satin, backless bodysuit. Garter belts snapped into the matching thigh-high stockings.
A guttural sound ripped out of Cash.
“What the fuck are you trying to do to me?” he muttered at my ear. Big hands cinched down on my hips before he let his palms smooth over my bare bottom. “Did you plan this? Seducing me? Making me lose all control?”
Choked laughter rippled out. “The girls insisted.”
My friends.
My family.
I could hardly believe it.
I couldn’t process the change that had taken place in a moment. The shift that had rewritten everything I thought I knew.
A low chuckle rumbled out of him, and he expelled a breath against the side of my neck. Shivers raced and the need glowed.
“They knew I could never resist you. Do you think they saw the fire inside me, Daisy? Do you think they saw right through me to the place that burns for you?”