Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
I want to make you happy.
I will do whatever it takes.
Landry’s eyes burned like liquid fire. Within moments, he pulled away from me with a glare.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
Beyond the thin curtain, glasses clinked, laughter swelled and dipped, and the hum of polite conversation masked the ragged sound of my breathing.
I blinked up at him, jaw aching and lips slick, my head spinning from lack of oxygen… and lack of understanding.
“Like what?”
“Like you want something from me.”
“But I do,” I admitted softly. “I want you to admit you care about me.”
Landry scoffed. “So you can reject me again?” He jerked his sleeves down and smoothed his cuffs as if he was getting ready to rejoin the party. “I could tell you I love you, and you wouldn’t care. It wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference.”
I pushed off the ground to stand before him in the darkened space. The scent of perfume—something expensive and refined—drifted through the partition, reminding me that we shouldn’t be here like this. But there was nowhere else on Earth I wanted to be.
My shirtsleeve hung open and crumpled as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“Try me.”
He stepped close, his breath hot against my cheek. “You have no idea,” he warned in a low, desperate voice.
I did, though. Or I was almost sure I did. And the way my heart flung itself around my rib cage at the knowledge should have been biologically impossible. “So tell me.”
“Fuck you,” he spat.
“Darling, I’d love nothing more…” I arched a brow and ran a casual finger over his shirt cuff. “…but it seems you’re done using my body for the evening.”
There it was. I’d finally found the hot button. And I’d pressed it long and hard.
Landry’s eyes bored into mine, anger sparking anew. “Using your body? Never in the history of our time together have I used you! I have loved you from the very first time, Kenji Toma.”
His eyes widened, and his voice broke, like he’d just realized what he’d admitted. But my Landry—my stubborn, beautiful reprobate—didn’t back down… he doubled down. “I love you more than I can even put into words. I would give up my fucking future, my dreams, my family for you. I love you so much, I—”
I grabbed the front of his shirt. “Landry—”
He clapped a hand over my mouth. “No. Do not say a single word, or I won’t leave here with my dignity intact. If you reject me again, that’s it, and I’ll dissolve into a pathetic, sobbing mess. If you don’t…”
Landry frowned like he’d never let himself imagine the alternative, and my heart squeezed with something fierce and protective.
No one would ever hurt this man again, I vowed. Even—especially—me.
“If I don’t?” I whispered against his skin.
He sucked in a breath. “If you don’t, I will, quite frankly, experience a medical event and have to be carted out on a stretcher. Either way… please, baby. Please don’t say it.”
Every ounce of love I’d ever felt for him had to be apparent in my eyes. At least, I hoped it was. The words hammered against the back of my teeth, desperate to break free, but for him, I held them back.
He replaced his hand with his lips on mine and kissed me until we were both gasping for air.
I scrambled for my pants, yanking them open while Landry fumbled in his pocket for something. My idea was to relieve the tension with a quick frot, but he had something else in mind.
He spun me around, pressing me face-first into the thick wool coats. I grabbed onto them to keep from tumbling through them into the wall.
“Lan—!” I squeaked as a slick finger pressed against my hole. Relief and arousal hit me in tandem, sharp and dizzying. I didn’t give a shit what he was using for lube as long as it worked.
“Shh,” he cooed softly in my ear, his chin nudging my hair away from the side of my face. “That’s it. Let me in, beautiful. Good. Just like that.”
The feel of him inside me made my eyes sting, not from pain but from the sheer fucking rightness of it. I’d missed him so much—the way he took over, took care of me, made me feel like the center of his world and my pleasure was his sole focus.
“I love you,” he breathed.
A whimper slipped from my throat.
Landry’s low voice went straight to my balls. “Shh, don’t say it. Don’t.”
My nose burned, eyes welling. He felt so fucking good as he worked his way inside me, slow and deliberate.
“I love you so much,” he murmured. His cock felt like it was in my throat. The stretch burned, forcing me up on my toes.
“I love you,” he said again, his voice raw and rough in my ear. “You have no idea what it does to me when you walk away like I don’t mean anything. Like this… us… is only physical.”