Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 152064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 760(@200wpm)___ 608(@250wpm)___ 507(@300wpm)
“Doesn’t change the way it makes either of us feel, though. I want to be worth the risk for you, Tally. So I need you to be honest when things like this upset you. I don’t want you to sit on those feelings, okay?”
“Okay,” I agree.
He curls his fingers around mine. “You want to tell me how that made you feel?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, parsing through my emotions.
“Talk to me,” he encourages. “I need this from you, even if it’s hard.”
“I was annoyed that they were too clueless to realize they shouldn’t approach you at all. I felt bad for Tristan.”
His jaw ticks.
I drop my gaze to our clasped hands. I don’t know where the boundaries are. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“What did you want to do?” he asks softly.
“Tuck myself against your side. Pull your arm around me.” Show them he’s mine. “I knew this would happen, but knowing and experiencing it isn’t the same.”
“Then next time that’s exactly what you should do.” He kisses the back of my hand. “I’m going to take you home, okay?”
I try to hide my disappointment. “Okay.”
We’re quiet on the drive to my apartment. I don’t love knowing that women will constantly hit on him wherever he goes. Or that the media will speculate about his sex life. Or that Flip might externalize his own fears and try to protect me from his past by throwing up walls I don’t know how to climb over or knock down.
Flip doesn’t pull up in front of my building. Instead, he parks in the visitors’ lot.
“I’d like to walk you up.”
Relief washes over me. “Yes, please.”
He cuts the engine and hops out, rounding the hood as I unfasten my seat belt. He puts his arm around me as we make the short walk to my building. The atrium is mostly quiet apart from a few late-night studiers, as is the elevator.
“I need to hug you.” He pulls me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me as we ascend.
I hum contentedly and link my hands at the small of his back while I listen to the heavy thud of his heart.
We stop at my floor and Flip keeps his arm around me as he walks me down the hall. When we reach my door, he pushes my hair over my shoulders. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah, of course. I’d love that.”
One side of his mouth quirks up. “Me, too.”
My hand shakes as I swipe the fob across the sensor. “We have to be quick,” I remind him.
I slip through the door, prepared to block Parsnip’s escape as Flip follows me, but instead of darting for the narrow gap, my cat scales Flip’s pant leg.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Flip gently unhooks the cat from his thigh, which is probably bleeding in several places. Parsnip purrs loudly and headbutts his hand.
“You are such a harlot,” I grumble and toe off my shoes.
Flip scratches under his chin before setting Parsnip on the floor so he can do the same. “Is Fee home?”
“She’s at a friend’s tonight.” She had a study session that ran late and didn’t feel like walking across campus in the freezing cold.
“So we have the place to ourselves.”
“It’s just you and me and Parsnip,” I confirm.
Flip runs his hands down my arms and lifts them, encouraging me to link them behind his neck.
“Hold on tight, kitten.” He bends, gripping high on the back of my thighs as he hoists me up. I wrap myself around him, and he carries me down the hall. But he doesn’t head for my bedroom, instead he goes to the living room.
He adjusts my legs as he sits in the middle of the couch, with me straddling his thick thighs. My heart is hammering and my body is humming with anticipation.
Flip runs his hands up my thighs, skims my waist and keeps moving up until my face is cradled in his hands. “Don’t be jealous of anyone that came before us.” He leans in and kisses the edge of my jaw, sending a shiver down my spine. “No one else gets this part of me, but you, Tally.”
I tentatively run my fingers through his silky hair.
“I want to give you everything you need.” Flip moves one of his hands to my hip and squeezes. “Be everything you need.”
His teeth scrape gently along the side of my neck, and I whimper.
“That’s the sound I’ve been waiting all night to hear again,” he murmurs.
I slide forward in his lap, seeking some kind of friction, but he circles my waist and holds me in place.
He shakes his head. “Remember what I said.”
At my confusion, he smiles darkly.
“We go at my pace.” He kisses a path along my neck. “And at times like this it will feel excruciatingly slow, but it will be so worth the wait.” He pulls back and cups my chin in his wide palm. “Do you know why?”