Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103621 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
I cup her face with both hands and cover her lips with mine, silencing all that crazy talk about her and Mimi moving out with a kiss that’s just for us. Not for a judge, not for a bunch of drunk frat boys, just me and Elly, this woman who’s owned me from the moment I laid eyes on her.
And yes, a part of me still feels like a madman for falling for a stranger, but she isn’t a stranger now. She’s the hockey nerd who cheers me on with shameless enthusiasm. She’s the friend who sits next to me on the terrace, talking through everything in our heads and hearts as we watch the sun go down and our city light up. She’s a fiercely devoted mother to a little girl I adore and an unstoppable force, who’s been through more in twenty-three years than most people face in a lifetime, but is still fighting, still dreaming, still as soft and kind as she is determined.
She’s just…Elly.
Elly on her way to becoming Eloise, a person who inspires me every damned day.
She’s the woman I’m falling in love with, and that was before I knew she kissed like this.
Now?
I’m ruined for all other women, ruined and happy to never kiss anyone else again for the rest of my fucking life as long as this woman is mine.
Fuck, I want her to be mine…
As our tongues stroke deep and her hands fist in my shirt, I feel her whole body shift toward me, like she’s being pulled by the same magnetic force that has me wanting to drag her into my lap right here in this booth. Her fingers press tighter to my chest as she makes a soft, needy sound against my mouth that shoots straight to my cock, making me grateful we’re sitting down.
This woman turns me on like no one ever has. She touches me and I’m suddenly sixteen again, unable to control myself or tamp down the evidence of the way she makes me ache.
My thumbs brush along her jawline as I angle closer, deepening the kiss until there’s nothing but the wild, sweet taste of her. She kisses like she does everything, with her whole heart, holding nothing back, giving me everything even when she should probably be more careful. I should be more careful, too. As much as everything about Elly feels like home, like heart and safety and family, the fact is that we’re still basically strangers.
We’ve barely known each other for a week.
But careful went out the window the moment I saw her crying in that closet and knew I’d do anything to make this beautiful girl smile again.
“You’re the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” she whispers against my lips. “I want to taste you everywhere.”
“Same, beautiful,” I murmur, pulse spiking as a vivid image of her legs spread and my mouth between them flashes through my head. “I want to do so many things to you with my mouth.”
“Please, yes.” Her breath shudders out as her teeth catch my bottom lip, a gentle nip that has me groaning as I slide my fingers into her hair.
Pins fly as I fist my fingers in the silky strands, but before I can apologize, she’s moaning as she says, “I want to be with you, Grammercy. I want to do everything with you, and I don’t want any of it to be fake.”
“Me, either, baby. Me, either.” I’m as close as I can get now, the edge of the table the only thing keeping me from completely losing my mind in public.
I’ve never wanted anyone—or anything—like this. Now that I know she feels the same way, it’s almost more than I can handle. Elly’s pulse races beneath where my thumb rests on her throat, echoing the stampede inside my chest. We’re both suffering, so desperate for this, for each other, that’s it’s almost too much.
“We should stop,” I warn, my voice low and rough. “Before we can’t.”
“I know, you’re right,” she agrees, but neither of us pulls away. If anything, our kiss only gets hotter, deeper.
“Fuck, Elly, I need you, chère. I need to be inside you,” I confess, breath catching as her fingers dig into my thigh beneath the table. “I’m so hard for you, ma petite flamme.”
“Can I feel?” she whispers.
I exhale a soft, strangled sound as I nod and then—fuck, her hand is on me, molding to my pulsing cock through my suit pants. I twitch beneath her touch as she squeezes and strokes, exploring me with an obvious appreciation that drives me crazy.
Crazy…
I really am losing it because before I know what I’m doing, my hand is gliding up her thigh, discovering the place where her stockings become skin and then—just skin. Slick, hot, already trembling under my touch.
She spread her thighs a little wider for me, and that’s all the permission I need.