Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
And finally, he collapsed, a human in the form of vapor, no idea if he’d ever move again. But even in his replete—and frankly, love-drunk—state, the irony wasn’t lost on him. He’d set out to teach her how to attract and keep a man, but she’d ended up teaching him about himself, instead. What he valued most. Who he wanted to be.
Where he wanted to be and with whom.
The answer to that had been obvious this morning, but now?
Now he had hope. A potential chance.
He wasn’t going to squander it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Skylar woke up alone.
Her panic only had ten seconds to bloom, however, because Robbie came skidding back into her childhood bedroom in white boxer briefs, red hair wild, grinning like he had a secret. It all kind of happened in slow motion, the realization that she had fallen for him somewhere in the middle of this week’s mayhem. Even before he’d shown up with Boston University swag, saved her from drowning, salvaged her father’s pride, suffered through karaoke, and . . .
Blown her actual mind in bed.
Like, blown it into the next decade.
Was it crazy that she half wished he wasn’t so good in bed? Because it was obvious he’d had a lot of practice. His hands and mouth and hips were confident in every movement. Knew exactly how to hold and touch and position her. She’d decided years ago she simply wasn’t the kind of woman who could mentally relax enough to have an orgasm through intercourse, but, holy shit, her uterus was physically sore from how intensely Robbie had twisted her insides up and strained them with that blissful rush of release.
She was hungover from that orgasm.
Even more terrifying was the churned-up sensation in the dead center of her chest. How had the worst of it happened while she slept? Had his protective arms around her all night allowed her guard to drop and her growing feelings to spread?
“Talent show,” Robbie stage-whispered, closing the bedroom door without a sound. “Your parents must have taken my rant yesterday to heart, because that’s the final challenge. Talent shows have very low mortality rates. What are we going to do?”
Skylar couldn’t answer right away because a wedge got stuck in her throat. Somehow on this giant planet, she’d collided with someone who got excited about her family’s nonsense, too. This man was already very important to her. Did she have full confidence he’d always want mornings like this? Want a long-term relationship?
Not quite.
Not one hundred percent.
But maybe she could try to trust him . . . for now? See how it felt?
“Oh wow,” she responded. “We haven’t had one for . . . at least five years.”
“I’m surprised they’ve ever planned anything that wasn’t physically harrowing. What are we going to do, Rocket?” He clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously. “I’m a man of many talents, you know.”
She stretched her arms and legs out as far as possible in the mess of sheets, yawning and wiggling her toes. “Oh, believe me, I know.”
Robbie raised an eyebrow. “Wow. We’re getting straight to the point this morning, are we?” He pressed one knee onto the bed, followed by the other, and prowled closer, laughing when she flipped quickly onto her stomach and tried to hide herself under the covers. Such behavior was ridiculous . . . and she didn’t care. In fact, she coveted this freedom to act however she wanted in front of Robbie, knowing he’d respond in kind or simply be amused. Look at me. I can be playful and sexy.
The lessons had worked.
Skylar squeaked into a pillow when the covers were stripped off and she was covered, instead, by a thick blanket of hockey muscle, her butt fitting tightly into his lap like it had been carved specifically for that very spot and they both moaned over the way they locked together, her backside to his groin.
His warm, minty breath bathed her ear. “Since you brought it up, I’d love to talk about all the ways you find me talented.”
Skylar made a conscious decision not to think of his talent in terms of how it had been honed, but instead how it had been focused on her. That mental trick wasn’t easy to perform. She did it, though. She did it because their bare skin aligned in the morning haze was a heaven she’d never expected to visit and because she could still feel how tenderly he’d held her throughout the night. “You make me feel sexy,” she murmured.
Robbie scoffed. “Because you are.”
Heat bloomed on her cheeks, but she kept going anyway. “You make my body feel like it’s the most desirable body in the world.”
“It is,” he growled into her neck. “I promised myself I wouldn’t give in to the male urge to say this, but I can usually go for hours. I’m lucky I lasted eight seconds with you.” He let the weight of his lower body press down on hers, hips pinning hips, his bulge wedged between the cheeks of her backside. Rocking. Rocking. “There’s no feeling like the one you give me. I don’t know how I’ve been living without it.”