Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
“Come on,” I murmured, pulling back the blankets on the other side of the bed.
Without hesitation, she crossed the room and slipped beneath the covers, pressing up against my side. I curled my arm around her, my fingers playing with the ends of her long, red hair. I angled my head just enough to press a kiss to the top of her head.
“Can’t sleep?” I asked quietly.
She shook her head, her hair tickling my bare chest. “No. The shadows…” Her voice trailed off, but I knew what she meant. The shadows were playing tricks on her. It was a well-known symptom of anxiety disorder. She was going to need therapy, and the sooner I got her to agree to it, the better. But that wasn’t a conversation for tonight. That could hold until tomorrow.
“Nothing can harm you here,” I promised her. “I won’t let it.” Tightening my arm around her, I closed my eyes, my mind calming now that she was with me and I knew she was okay. Silence stretched with just the sound of the ceiling fan blowing above us, and I was almost drifting off when she spoke again, jerking me back to wakefulness in a fucking snap.
“Can we have sex?” she blurted. Her fingers were tapping out a rhythm on my flat stomach—a nervous tick of hers that she’d never broken. “I just… I know sex will relieve all this nervous energy I have, and I need to know that the last man who touched me didn’t violate me.” Her voice cracked near the end. When I didn’t say anything because I couldn’t get my fucking brain to work since all the blood in my brain had rushed south to my dick, she tipped her head back to look up at me. “Please, Jimmie?”
I swallowed, my throat clicking. “Baby…” I rasped. My heart was hammering in my chest, and my dick was already so fucking hard, I could pound a nail into a fucking two-by-four with it. “It might hurt. You probably haven’t healed yet.” I wouldn’t deny her. Couldn’t deny her when this was something I’d wanted with her for years. But I couldn’t be the one to cause her pain.
“I know my body, Jimmie,” she assured me. She leaned up on her elbow, peering down at me with those warm, brown eyes I loved so goddamn much. “Please.”
“You don’t play fair,” I grumbled. A little smile tilted her lips, and my heart fucking somersaulted in my chest. I was so gone for her. That’d never really ever been in question, but looking up at her right then, I knew I’d give her the fucking world. Or if she wanted it to burn to ashes around us, I’d do that for her, too. Hell, I’d light the match and hand it to her so she could do it herself, if she wanted.
“You sure this is what you want, baby?” I asked, leaning up on my elbow now, too. Our eyes were level now, and while I could see the uncertainty in her gaze, I also saw that stubborn will to have what she wanted. “You’re nervous.”
“Not for sex itself,” she told me. My lips quirked at the corners because she and I both knew she’d never been nervous about sex. She was a woman who knew what she wanted and took it. “I’m nervous because it’s sex with you.”
“With me?” I questioned, my stomach swooping at her confession.
She nodded. “I told myself I could never have you again after I fell pregnant with Wyatt. Told myself you weren’t ever ready for that kind of commitment. And I think I was wrong.”
I lifted my hand and cupped the side of her neck, my thumb tracing her jaw. “Oh, you were wrong, baby. If you’d given me the chance, I’d have given you the fucking world just for the opportunity to be able to call you mine.”
Her lips parted in surprise. And I took advantage, leaning in to press our mouths together. And when she moaned, I knew there would be no turning back.
From that moment on, our futures would be changed because I knew I’d never be able to let her go. Not again.
Chapter Eleven
Jimmie
I was going to devour her. Trinity was so soft and warm under my hands, and her lips eagerly moved with mine, both of us lost in the moment. A moment we’d both wanted for so long—fucking years—but had never dreamed we could actually have again. But I’d make sure neither of us went without this ever again.
After tonight, after this fucking kiss, she was mine.
Trinity moaned again when I dipped my tongue between her parted lips. She tangled her tongue with mine, and a low growl sounded from my chest in response. My cock was throbbing, aching and begging to be inside of her. But I wanted to take my time with her. Watch her fall apart. Show her that sex wasn’t ruined just because a man she’d trusted had violated her in the worst possible way.