Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 16084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 54(@300wpm)
She fell for the man behind the mask long before she saw me behind it. Our kiss, the exploration of our bodies, made it damn clear that she wants this. Me.
It doesn’t have to change because of what happened earlier.
“Rickon . . .” Her head snaps back in my direction, tears welling in her eyelids. The same way I met her. “Don’t know if—”
“You have all I can offer,” I cut her short before she says something we can’t come back form, and level my gaze with hers. Never blinking, watching for any sign of a shift. “My turn to ask you something.”
She nods.
“Why are you still here, if you’ve already made your mind up about me?”
“Because,” her voice is brittle, like twigs snapping underfoot. “I haven’t. How am I supposed to make sense of this? I hated you a couple of hours ago, now . . .”
You can’t stop thinking about me.
“Rickon, I need time to think about this. I can’t make any decisions right now.” She scooches out of the booth with the statement. Her body movement punctuating the moment.
I don’t let her get far, grabbing her loosely by the wrist and easing her back toward me. This time, she doesn’t fight it. Nor plays at delivering another echoing slap. Taylor merely faces me, eyes wide with anticipation, or maybe expectation. Giving in to the base desires her flooding emotions muddied.
“Hopefully this will make your thinking easier,” I say, my hands snapping to the small of her back to pull her into me. I kiss her with the same passion and fire as our first.
Her hands slink over my shoulders and hug loosely around my neck, mouth and body making decisions she’s too afraid to admit aloud. It calls out for more, the same way mine calls out for her. Eager, desperate, insatiable want.
Time to think . . . yeah, right.
When our kiss concludes, it isn’t abrupt or out of rage and disgust. Taylor’s smiling as she pulls away, face dry and fear gone.
All it took was a little nudge in the right direction. Me proving that I meant what I said with actions rather than words.
“I hope you don’t think this changes anything,” she says, giggling elated as she slips out of the booth.
“Sure it does,” I shout after her, loving the view of her swaying hips as she walks. “Means you’ll be seeing me mighty soon, Baby Doll.”
She leaves, and I follow close behind.
Her porcelain and my bandana, left on the table.
Facing the future together, unmasked, and fearless.
6
TAYLOR
All of that happened . . . right?
This question has been running through my head on repeat since I left the nightclub. I was there, I lived it, and yet it still feels fake.
I spent my taxi ride home trying to piece everything together. How the night started and where it ended. It wasn’t a few hours ago that we stood in the restaurant I’m staring at now. Right there, between two chairs, I fought the monster off of my dad.
He posed his threat and left. Next week. That’s when he said he’d be back.
Now, I’m supposed to believe that it’s all gone away? That he won’t come back for his blood money and my dad’s safe . . .
Rickon gave me no reason to not believe him. He said what he said and let me walk out of the club without expecting a hug goodbye. Though, by that point I think both of us were beyond hugging. The way our mouths moved and bodies interacted should be a sin.
Knowing I can’t do anything about it until Rickon makes a move, I head upstairs. Some fucked up part of me still thrumming with electric heat and want for more of what we started in the bar.
I do a double take on the stairs, considering the thought. Maybe fucked up isn’t the right way to think about it. From start, to finish, Rickon was the perfect gentleman. He didn’t push for anything, took his time and gave me control of the situation.
Hell, I’m the one who started stroking his cock, long before his hands found their way down my body. And if his promise of dad’s debt being cleared is true, without any stipulations or expectations from me, then there’s nothing to get hung up about.
We were two consenting adults, enjoying the evenings grandeur and spectacle. Even if he did follow me there. There’s no other way he’d have known where I was.
I hate to admit how thrilling it is. To have caught his attention so strongly, that he dropped everything to get a chance with me.
Oh goodness, tired as I am, I doubt I’ll be sleeping anytime soon. There was a hell of a lot of built-up tension that never got released, and I guess that’s what the rest of my night has in store.