Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
“No.” The male took a deep breath. “I don’t really want them here when she dies. I know—I mean, it makes no sense to treat them like they’re too young to understand—and as we come to the end, if they ask to stay, of course, they’re welcome to. But I don’t want them to remember her in her last moments. What if it’s not… what if we can’t control her pain? Or her breathing gets bad and she struggles?”
“Well, I think we should talk it over with them. But at least they have been visiting a lot, so important time’s been spent. Especially on Lyric’s end.”
“She and her granmahmen have always been so close.” Blay frowned. “I worry about her.”
Qhuinn took another draw of the mug, and thought about the frantic way their daughter had run into his arms the night before in that club. Although the show of emotion was more than reasonable given what had almost happened, he’d sensed an undercurrent of stress that was all new.
Their shiny, happy daughter wasn’t shiny or happy these nights and days, and he wasn’t sure how much was what was going on here… and how much was stuff parents didn’t always know about.
“Me, too,” he said grimly. “I worry, too.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Dev woke up the following evening on a moan. He was on his back, one arm over his head, the other twisting a wedge of blanket up in a fist. Down at his hips, shit was thick and demanding, and tendrils of the dream he was coming out of tantalized.
Something to do with that stairwell to the rooftop and Lyric straddling him, as he held himself in place on the steps.
Closing his eyes, he went right back into the fantasy, seeing her blond hair flowing over her shoulders, her parka open, her turtleneck shoved up over her breasts, her bra pushed under them, her nipples peaked hard—
Another moan rumbled up through his chest—
His alarm went off, the sound of a barking dog shooting through all the sexy and blowing it apart to hell and gone. As his eyes popped open, he slapped his hand around the little table and sent the cell phone flying.
“Motherfucker…”
Sweeping his legs free of the covers, he planted his feet and yanked the blanket aside. Of course, as things dragged across his lap, he hissed through his locked teeth at the friction. And then as he stood up, shit was positively obscene, his erection sticking straight out in front of him like a divining rod—
Bending down for the phone, the true north stayed its course.
As he silenced the alarm, he heard people moving around upstairs, voices in the hall, a siren outside. Life, happening all around him.
Going into his texts, his heart started to pound, but he ignored—
Nope, Lyric’s initial text was still there. She really did want to meet him for dinner.
After verifying she hadn’t changed her mind, and that his affirming response had been seen, he closed out his phone and put it facedown on the bedside table.
Not too late to change this, he reminded himself. You can still pull out.
With a grim resignation, he headed to the bathroom, and as the door was partially closed, he swung his hips and pushed it open with his cock—
Payback was a bitch.
The contact shot was a bolt of lightning into his balls and he sagged against the doorjamb, the wood creaking as his weight hit it. When he went forward again, it was directly to the shower. No chance of going the bladder route, and he didn’t wait for the water to warm up. He stepped under the blast of spray, and led with his dumb handle.
Another plan backfire. He’d wanted to punish himself, but the stinging impacts that tickled his proverbial ivory just made the thing throb more.
Turning his back to the spray, he grabbed his shaft with his left hand, braced his other palm against the tiled wall, and dropped his head into his biceps. The stroking was goddamn delicious, especially as he closed his eyes and imagined it was a different palm against his cock—Lyric’s—and she was setting a rhythm that was hard and fast.
Naked. He pictured her naked and with him, her nipples dripping with water—
Annnnnd that was what did it. He didn’t even have to get to the part where he got down on his knees and licked those drips off the tips of her breasts. He came so hard, he had to bite down on a knot of muscle to keep from yelling loud enough to scare the neighbors—and as soon as the orgasm started to fade? Another ramped right up.
Not his usual thing. But did he even have one?
As he kept working his erection, he told himself—when he could think—that he was doing everybody in Caldwell a public service. He’d been pent up ever since Lyric had left last night, and he had a feeling that seeing her again, even if it was just across the table in a restaurant, was going to sharpen his libido to a blade.