Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Six months.
“Fine,” he forced out. “Six months.”
Eve’s eyes widened slightly, as if surprised not to receive an argument. “Six months in secret.”
“Semisecret,” he qualified. “We’ll need a witness when we marry.”
“Right.” She chewed her lip. “Not Elton.”
“Yes, Elton.” Madden smiled, aching over being in this reality where he casually discussed marrying Eve Keller. “He’ll keep quiet.”
Her skepticism was plain. “Fine, but I get to tell one person as well.”
“Skylar?”
Eve hesitated.
“Eve.” Madden shook his head. “She’s over me, love. Trust me.”
“Yes. I . . . know. It’s just hard to imagine anyone getting over you.” In the wake of that unexpected statement, he almost suggested they go track down an officiant right that very second. Could she tell she’d left him winded? “Can I have two people?” she asked.
Madden inclined his head. She could tell a million. The more, the better.
“Thanks. I’ll tell Skylar. Soon. I just want to do it in person. For now, I’ll tell Veda, since she already knows you proposed.” Eve put her hand out for a shake, even though there were mere inches between them, so her hand could barely fit. “I guess we have a deal.”
“Not so fast, love. What about the rest of it?”
She frowned in confusion. “The rest of it?”
“Aye.” He brought his mouth down to hers, grazing their lips together only slightly, but that featherlight touch and her subsequent shaky inhale was enough to grip his balls with need. “Go on. Pretend like you forgot.”
One shaky breath. Two. “Oh, you’re talking about the . . . benefits thing?”
“In fact, I am. Though I’m not fond of the word benefits.”
“What would you call it?”
He hadn’t thought of a proper description, but only one word occurred to Madden and he said it against her temple. “Fulfillment.”
A tremor passed through her. “Friends with fulfillment.”
“Friends,” he scoffed gently into her hair. “Right. Married for six months. In secret. And when you need fulfillment, you get it from me. Do you accept those terms?”
“You’re so confident you can fulfill me?”
Not the slightest hesitation. “Aye, love. Watch me.”
Chapter Twelve
A firm press of heat bore down on Eve’s tummy, making everything southward turn to jelly. Only two men had ever aroused her like this. Madden. And the Madden in her imagination. The one she’d been sleeping with for years. But this marriage could only be temporary, so her exclusive attraction to Madden wasn’t a good thing. “I don’t know, Mad. Hooking up when we’re planning a divorce in six months could get messy.”
“I’ve wanted you in bed for years and you wanted me too. Isn’t that right?”
Still getting used to voicing her feelings for him out loud, it took her a moment to hum an affirmation.
That hum was enough to make his chest rise and dip dramatically. “And we haven’t given in, because your best friend fancied herself in love with me.”
“Uh-huh.”
“That didn’t stop the wanting, though, Eve. Didn’t stop me dreaming about what you’d feel like underneath me. For years. We’re already messy,” he breathed against her mouth. “What’s a little more?”
“You have a point,” she managed, her voice threadbare.
Eve’s hands rose of their own accord, slowly, framing the sides of his face. His breath held while she thumbed the bristle of his jaw, the sculpted curve of his bottom lip. It was so, so silent and still in the house, impossibly quiet, except for the accelerated rapping of their hearts. He was letting her take the lead, letting her decide when the kiss finally happened, after a millennium of wondering what it would be like, but his tether wasn’t a long one, made obvious by the hands that fisted in the hips of her jeans, sliding her to the end of the couch arm, into the safe haven of his well-muscled body, so that she had to tilt her head back to look at him. To maintain the touch of their lips.
“Put me out of my misery, Eve.” His voice shook.
“I’m getting there,” she whispered, pitching her head slowly to the right, memorizing the spellbound look in his eyes before closing her own, focusing on touch. On the warm restraint of his breath bathing her mouth. The way his hair wrapped itself around her fingers as if welcoming her home. The power of him, waiting there, waiting to be tapped.
And finally, she did.
She teased open his lips with her own, stroking her tongue inside. Just once.
Madden released a hoarse sound, but he waited for the next move, his grip tight, so tight, on the denim covering her hips. She licked into him again, two more times, nearly moaning over the low, hot pulse between her thighs, that drugging tug of muscle cutting her patience in half like a machete.
“Madden,” she managed, before going deep with the next play of her tongue, their breaths escaping like the hiss of a punctured tire, her fingers twisting in his hair to pull him down—and he went, a man at the end of his rope, yanking her to the very, very end of the couch arm, lurching closer to loom above Eve while their mouths feasted, his thighs bracketing her knees, his stance making her feel dainty and trapped in the most delicious way. And speaking of delicious, Madden was the definition of that word. He kissed like he was determined to feed her, like he could abolish her hunger with slick, carnal rides of his mouth over hers, the heat of his thick body reaching through her clothes, sensitizing, eliciting a whimper from her mouth. Her first ever whimper?