Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
And I’d come to realise it felt more like home with him in it.
18.
Shannon
I thought I’d go straight to bed and sleep as soon as we got back. Instead, I was buzzed, my mind racing. It wasn’t anything to do with the events of the day, but something deeper. Jace’s proximity awakened me in a way I hadn’t anticipated. I was wired with a building, uncontainable energy. Maybe it was because I’d kissed him earlier in the night, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. My skin was tingling, lungs burning, cheeks flushed.
“Hey.” Jace leaned in the doorway, arms folded as he surveyed me pacing my kitchen floor.
“What? Yes. I’m fine.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t ask anything.”
A flush crept up my neck. “You didn’t? Oh, well.”
He stepped into the room, tilting his head as he set himself in my path. “What’s going on, Shannon?”
I paused, peering up at him, skin tingling as I blurted, “I think I need you.”
He took a step closer, eyes darkening as they travelled down my form. I felt everywhere they lingered, from my lips to my neck, along my collarbone, chest, and hips. I realised I was standing in the exact same spot from the morning after my sex dream. There had been more of those. With Jace sleeping on my couch, his irresistible presence filling the house with so much light and warmth, music, and laughter, I couldn’t help dreaming of him.
Sometimes he sang to me; other times he kissed me until I was short of breath. Often, he’d sink his cock inside me, and I’d wake feeling empty.
“What exactly do you need from me?” he asked low, giving me a chance to back out. But I didn’t want to back out. I only wanted him. I watched as he prowled towards me, and then, just like that morning when I’d almost come and he’d barely touched me, he dropped to his knees. My breath caught as a tremble wracked my entire body.
“I need your mouth,” I whispered, my gaze tracing the familiar lines of him, the breadth of his shoulders, the set of his jaw, the lips I’d missed more than I’d ever admit.
Wanting him had never been the dangerous part. Pretending it didn’t mean something was. Jace was all I’d ever wanted, and though I’d tried to convince myself otherwise during our years apart, there was no more denying it.
“If I give you what you want,” he asked softly, “will you be mine?”
The question settled deep, right where the truth lived. Not about tonight. Not about desire. About choosing. About staying. I’d told myself for months, years, that I could live without him, that I could want less, feel less, survive it. But every path I’d imagined had led me right back here. Back to him.
“You know I’m yours,” I said quietly. “I’ve never been anyone else’s.”
And saying it didn’t feel like giving something up. It felt like coming home. I stared into his eyes and the rough, satisfied growl he emitted told me he understood what I was saying. Just like I was the only woman he’d ever slept with, he was the only man I’d ever been with, too.
His hands went to the waistband of my pants. He pulled them down and off, revealing the sheer, lacy underwear I’d put on this morning. I wore it because I liked to wear nice things. I never once expected that anyone would see it before the day was through.
Jace dragged a hand over his jaw, his gaze swallowing me up. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“Touch me,” I begged, and his hazel eyes practically blazed with want. He rested his cheek against my belly as he peered up, his hand massaging my thigh before his fingers wandered to the lace. He traced the pattern. Teasing me … testing me. I wanted to cry out but managed to stifle it by biting my lip.
“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve imagined this since that morning when you told me about your dream?”
“More like forced me to tell you,” I countered, and a smirk shaped his lips. I reached for his tie, loosening it a little before he batted my hands away.
“You first,” he rumbled, and then in the space of a few seconds, he had my knickers pulled down, the elastic resting mid-thigh as he brought his face to me and licked right up my centre. It was the single most erotic moment of my life. A strangled moan escaped as I stared down, transfixed by the ravenous way he ate me. When my underwear got in the way, he growled before tearing it with a forceful rip.
“I’ll replace those,” he promised, tossing the material aside. I didn’t even have time to be mad because in the next moment he’d hitched my leg over his shoulder and buried his face between my thighs. He looked up, watching for my reaction as he sucked my clit into his mouth. I shuddered.