Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91594 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91594 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Wildly attracted?” I repeat the key phrase in what she just said.
She stomps away from me, leaving a faint hint of her perfume in her wake. It’s floral and will forever remind me of our time at the beach.
I follow behind her because I have no choice in the matter. My feet may be doing the work, but my desire for her is the fuel behind every step I’m taking in my effort to catch her before she storms out of my home.
“Greer,” I say her name loud enough that it stops her in her tracks. “We need to talk about this. Ignoring what we both want won’t make it disappear.”
She turns abruptly to face me. There’s a fire in her eyes that I haven’t seen in weeks. “What do we both want?”
I’d ask her what she thinks we want, but she needs to hear it from me first, so I’ll happily oblige. “To kiss, to touch. You want me to fuck you again.”
She shakes her head, but her stuttered breaths tell a different story, as do her rushed words. “You don’t know that.”
I narrow the distance left between us with measured steps. As soon as I’m close enough, I reach out to touch her chin. “Tell me I’m wrong. Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t want me. Tell me you don’t think about what it felt like to be with me.”
“I can’t,” she whispers. “I can’t tell you I don’t want you.”
That’s all I need to hear. Leaning forward, I drag the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip, waiting for her to signal this is not what she wants.
She leans forward too, tilts her head, and slowly closes her eyes.
I take what she’s offering to me and claim her pillow-soft lips in a deep, slow kiss.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Greer
I fall into him, resting my hands against his chest.
The kiss is everything, and then some.
He cups his hand around the back of my neck, owning the kiss and me. I give in to it all because it feels so good. It’s almost too good.
A phone ringing in the distance makes me pause. He does, too, but quickly dismisses it when he kisses me again.
The incessant ringing quiets as Holden starts to guide me toward the wall. He doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t need to. I know that I’m about to feel things I haven’t felt in weeks. This man takes me to places I’ve never been before.
The phone starts ringing again. Each shrill bite of the sound in the air haunts me.
“I think it’s mine,” I whisper against his lips. “I have to check it.”
He trails kisses over my neck, heading toward one of the shoulder straps of my dress. “Voicemail will pick up or they’ll call Krista.”
I whimper as he slides the strap aside before he kisses the spot under it. “Holden.”
“I need you naked, Greer,” he growls. “Jesus, do I want to fuck you. I’m hard as stone here.”
My hand falls to the front of his jeans.
The man is not lying. I can feel the outline of his rigid cock straining against the denim. With just my right hand, I fumble with the button before I free it. When I move to tug on the zipper, his hand joins mine. Our fingers tangle before we lower the zipper together.
“On your knees,” he orders. “I need your mouth on my dick.”
The plea in his voice is so needy that it catches my breath in my throat. I grab hold of his hands for leverage. I’m partway down to my knees when my phone starts ringing again.
Mild concern is now full-blown panic within me. My heart feels like it’s thundering through my chest wall.
I dart back up to standing. “I have to get it, Holden. Olive. What if it’s about Olive?”
I instantly realize what I’ve done. I’ve revealed a secret that I intended to hold onto tightly for as long as I could.
His gaze searches my face. “I’ll get the phone.”
He darts to where I left it by the front door when we came in. He scoops it up as it rings, but his gaze never leaves me.
Just as he hands it to me, the ringing subsides.
I scan the screen. Three missed calls from Martha.
I don’t care what happens next. All I care about is that my daughter is safe, so I press the button to call Martha back.
She doesn’t answer. My sweet angel does.
“Mommy?” Olive breathes hard into the phone. “Are you okay? I tried calling a thousand times.”
Holden’s gaze catches mine just as he takes a step back to give me more air to breathe and room to think.
“I’m okay, sweetheart,” I whisper into my phone. “Are you?”
“Grandma gave me her phone to call you.” She sniffles loudly. “We went to see a play in the park. There’s a lady with a box of kittens. Grandma said I can’t have one, but she said you had the last word.”