Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
His chuckle was rough, though his words turned reverent. “I’m going to take care of you. Treasure you. Shower you in everything you didn’t know you wanted.”
My stomach flipped, and my blood pounded.
“I didn’t know I wanted any of this. Not until I met you,” I admitted.
“And I think somewhere in the back of my head, I did want it. I wanted someone who made me feel this way. But I was never fool enough to dream that I might actually have it.”
“It’s yours, Silas.”
A growl rolled his powerful chest. “That’s right, Brinley. You’re mine. Mine to cherish. Mine to worship. Mine to adore.”
Every word swelled through me on a wave of affection.
He dipped down and kissed along my jaw, and I reached up and lightly threaded my fingers through his hair.
Inhaled everything that he was.
The degeneracy and the righteousness.
The corruption and the integrity.
The brash harshness up against all his sweet.
He let one hand slide down my side, gliding over the divots of my ribs. The pad of his thumb brushed over my breast.
Sensation pebbled my nipple.
“You’re so beautiful, Brinley. Stole the breath right out of my lungs the second you stepped from your brother’s car. Knew you were going to be my end when you did. I just didn’t know what that meant.”
I arched, and the fabric of my tee brushed against the rigid strength of his bare chest, seeking the connection.
To feel the violent ravaging of his heart as he murmured his confessions to me.
“My match. The match. The wildfire I didn’t see coming. Burning up my world and setting fire to my heart.”
“I thought you were the most dangerously gorgeous man I’d ever seen,” I whispered into the chaos. “But I never thought in a million years I’d fall in love with you.”
I almost regretted letting it go with the way Silas’s body went rigid, and everything slowed as he pressed up onto his hands so he was hovering over me.
His beautiful face tortured and severe.
“I guess I should have known I’d fall in love with you. You were a lightning strike in the darkness that ruled my life. A shooting star falling from the heavens and taking me down with you. Warmth in the cold. I’ve spent so many years allowing hatred to drive me. But this love will be what’s driving me now, Brinley. This massive amount of love that I’ve got for you. You were the only one who could break through the stone, and now, every broken piece belongs to you.”
“I love you.” I said it straight.
“I’m so fucking in love with you that I’ve forgotten to breathe without you here. The second you walked out the door…”
His tongue swiped over his lips.
“Even though there was no chance you were getting over the wall…” He quirked an accusatory brow, then the words went gruff, “I knew the wall I’d erected between us was one I couldn’t bear.”
“Who would have thought the one I believed my captor was my ultimate destination?”
“Guess you should have known all along that you belonged to me.” He hooked my leg up over his hip when he said it, just putting enough pressure at my center to feel the hardness that begged back.
He rocked against me, slow but sure.
Tiny fireworks sparked behind my eyes. A promise of what was coming.
I clawed at his shoulders, and he released a low chuckle at my ear. “Not even close to having you yet, and you’re already lighting up.”
“I need you.”
“You have me, baby. And you always will.”
Silas carefully edged back and rose up on his knees.
His skin crawled with lust. With desperate, tapped need. He curled his fingers into my tee. “Gonna strip you bare. You good with that?”
“I’m already bare, Silas. Stripped bare because of you.”
I sat up a little so he could lift my shirt over my head. Cool air brushed my flesh as he pulled it free and tossed it to the floor.
I wasn’t wearing a bra, and he heaved a breath and cupped my left breast. “So damned pretty. So sexy. Nothing but a fantasy that bashed through the armor in my world.”
I pushed into his touch, tilting my head back in pure supplication.
“Please,” I whispered again. Just in case he didn’t get the hint.
“No need to beg, my eager girl,” he rumbled into the tension that hung heavy in the room. “It’s already yours. Lay back.”
It was a soft grunt, and I hurried to comply, the rise and fall of my chest stuttered as my head hit the pillow.
Silas eyed me intently as he hooked his fingers in the waist of my leggings, and his teeth raked his bottom lip like maybe he needed to prepare himself.
I knew this was different for him, too. That neither of us had ever experienced another this way.
This thing that felt so utterly surreal.