Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 32231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Everything fades.
My lungs ache.
There’s shouting. Coughing. Something warm, solid, dragging me backward.
And then a voice.
“Don’t die on me. Please don’t die on me, Clay.”
I blink. Her face swims into view—Ember. Eyes wide. Soot streaks her cheeks. Her fingers press against my neck like she’s checking for a pulse.
“Em...” I rasp, grinning despite the burn in my chest. “Guess we’re really engaged now.”
She makes a sound halfway between a sob and a curse, gripping my shirt like she’s anchoring herself.
“You asshole.”
I try to sit up, but pain lances down my side. “You okay?”
“I’m not the one who ran into a burning house like a damn lunatic!” She’s crying now, angry and beautiful, mouth trembling. “You scared the hell out of me.”
I lift a hand, cup her jaw. Her skin’s warm, soft beneath the soot. “You make me want to live, damn it.”
Her breath catches.
And then I kiss her.
Right there in the dirt and ash and chaos, I kiss her like I’ve got nothing to lose. Because I nearly did. And it wrecks me, how close I came.
The sirens scream down the road, but all I hear is her.
All I feel is her mouth against mine—desperate, searching, hungry.
“Dumbass.” That’s the first thing Gabe says when the paramedics haul me upright, checking my ribs. “You went in alone,” he grits out, running a hand over his buzzed head. “Again.”
I don’t answer. Ember’s still at my side, breathless from our ash and soot kiss.
“I had to try,” I say.
Gabe glares. “Next time, try not being a hero. That’d be nice.”
“What about Mrs. Vance?”
“She was staying with her sister in Devil’s Peak. The house was empty, Clay.” He stomps off to help the rest of the crew. I wave off the oxygen mask, ignoring the medic’s protests. Ember steps forward, hands still trembling.
“Come on,” she says quietly. “Let’s get you home.”
Back at her place, she fusses.
I let her.
She pushes me down onto the couch and disappears into the bathroom. I hear the faucet, the rustle of towels. Then she returns, kneeling in front of me with a warm rag and eyes that cut straight through me.
“You could’ve died.”
“I didn’t.”
“Not the point.”
She scrubs gently at my cheek, wiping away soot and sweat. Her fingers tremble as they move over my jaw.
“You didn’t listen,” she murmurs. “You just ran in. Like you always do. Alone. No thought for what happens after.”
I catch her wrist. “Thought about you.”
Her lashes flutter. I don’t let go.
“You make everything loud, Ember. Loud in a way I can’t ignore. You think I’m just some broken bastard who’s good with tools, but you—”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Silence stretches.
“You scare me,” she admits.
My brows draw tight. “Me?”
“How easy it is to fall for you. How much I want this to be real.” Her throat works on a swallow. “I came here with a plan. A lie. And now I don’t know how to keep pretending.”
“I’m not pretending,” I growl.
She leans in. “Then prove it.”
I don’t need another goddamn invitation.
I drag her into my lap, mouth claiming hers. She tastes like desperation and fire and the sharp edge of fear. Her legs wrap around me, fingers tangling in my hair. I carry her down the hallway, never breaking the kiss.
Her bedroom door slams behind us.
And finally—finally—I lay her down and worship every inch like I promised.
My hungry gaze eats up her delicate skin, the soft pink of her chest and cheeks gleaming. I push the soft flannel off her shoulders and strip off her leggings. I take in her pussy glistening with juice meant only for me. “You drive me crazy thinking of all the ways I could own this pussy.”
A slow shudder rolls through her body as another surge of arousal coats the folds of her pretty pink slit. I part her thighs, too eager to taste her on my tongue again to tease her any longer.
“I feel like a savage the moment I get a whiff of this juicy little cunt.”
My fingers press through her velvety folds, my tastebuds hungry for more. I need to bring her to orgasm, make her cry with pleasure—she’s nowhere near ready for all the ways I plan to take her.
Her fingers claw into the sheets, my balls drawing tight at the base of my shaft as my mouth waters with the need to push inside her, to fill her up with my seed and cement the fact that she’s mine, now and forever.
“N-no one’s ever made me feel this way before,” she gasps between pants.
A growl rips through me at the thought. “No one else ever will.”
Just to drive home my point, my teeth snake against her tight little clit. My palms cup her ass cheeks as I drive her a little further up the bed and add my thumb to the tiny rosebud at her ass.