Total pages in book: 10
Estimated words: 8586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 43(@200wpm)___ 34(@250wpm)___ 29(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 8586 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 43(@200wpm)___ 34(@250wpm)___ 29(@300wpm)
Tye sighed and pressed his lips to the top of my head. “You just keep looking for guys in the wrong places, baby.”
Baby. He’d been calling me that name for years, but it never failed to make my heart swoop in my chest and send warmth through my veins. I loved that he called me baby, and because of how much I adored it, I never let another guy call me that.
That was Tye’s name for me only.
“Where the fuck else am I supposed to look, Tye?” I asked, my tone both exasperated and tired. “It’s not like I’m purposely looking for douchebags.”
“Look here,” he said.
I’m sorry—what?
“What?” I blurted, snapping my head back to look up at him.
His blue eyes met mine, and the intensity of them took my breath away. I curled my hands into fists between us so he wouldn’t feel them trembling against his chest. “I said to look here, baby. Right fucking here. I’ve been here this entire goddamn time.”
My lips parted. I wanted to say something, but he’d rendered me speechless. I didn’t know what the fuck to say. Was he insinuating that he actually saw me as more than just his best friend? As more than just the broken girl that needed a place to belong because her parents were emotionally and mentally abusive?
“I don’t understand,” I finally croaked. Because I really didn’t. I didn’t want to accidentally read too much into what he was saying and fuck this all up. I couldn’t afford to misinterpret his words and destroy our friendship by blurting my own feelings for him.
I couldn’t. Because losing him would fucking obliterate me.
Tye was the only person in this world who had the power to fucking kill me without actually taking my life.
Tye sighed and rolled onto his back, his arm still beneath my head as he stared up at the ceiling. “This might ruin everything between us, and before this incident with Turner,” I snorted a laugh at him getting Timothy’s name wrong again, “I swore I wouldn’t ever voice my feelings aloud to you. But I can’t stand to see you date yet another fucking douchebag. I don’t want to see you crying over another fucking asshole. So… Fuck. I’m in love with you, Aura. I’ve been in love with you since we were fucking kids. There’s been no one before you, and as far as I’m concerned, I’ll never be with anyone but you.”
I pushed up onto my elbow so I could peer down at him. My hair fell around my shoulders, tickling his bare chest. “Tye…”
He blew out a harsh breath and closed his eyes, hiding from me. Something he never did. “Look, if you’re going to break my heart, be gentle about it, yeah?”
I shook my head. “Tye, open your eyes and look at me,” I commanded. He followed my order without hesitation. I pressed my hand over his rapidly beating heart. “I love you,” I confessed, my voice barely above a whisper. “I’ve been in love with you for probably just as long, but I thought you didn’t return those feelings. I thought you only saw me as a friend. Maybe even someone you pitied.”
“Pity?” He scoffed. “Baby, you might have shit parents, but I don’t pity you. I can’t pity you when I literally watched you throw your dad’s coffee in his face and told him to go fuck himself and then watched you tell your mom you hoped she choked on her next burned meal.”
My lips quirked in amusement. “That was a pretty dramatic day, wasn’t it?”
He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me down so I was sprawled half on top of him. “Dramatic?” He rolled his eyes. “They deserved a hell of a lot worse.” Reaching up, he tucked my hair behind my ear, then cupped my cheek. “Does this mean you’ll be mine?” I hated how unsure he sounded. Tye was always confident, sometimes cocky, and he wasn’t really in touch with his emotions.
It was nice to know that he felt this for me.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I’m yours.” A small smile tilted my lips. “And you’re mine.”
A low growl rumbled from his chest that had my lower belly clenching. “Damn fucking right I am.” And then, his hand was lacing in my hair and he was pulling my mouth down to his for the hottest kiss I’d ever had in my life.
3
Tye
The moment our lips met, I was fucking gone. The heavy bass and the loud music failed to exist as I devoured Aura’s sweet mouth. She moaned and parted her lips when I licked along her bottom lip, and I took my time learning every curve as I dipped inside. I licked over her teeth and danced my tongue along hers, committing every part of her to memory.