Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
“Breathe for me,” he whispers against my ear, holding perfectly still. “Just breathe.”
I do as he says, and gradually the pain fades, replaced by something else entirely. Something that makes me want to move, to take more of him.
“Better?” he asks, and I nod.
That’s when he begins to move, each thrust careful and controlled. He watches my face intently, reading every expression, adjusting his rhythm until he finds what makes me gasp with pleasure instead of discomfort.
“Fuck, you feel incredible,” he murmurs when I arch beneath him. “So tight around me.”
The raw words combined with his wicked mouth on my throat has me crying out his name. The feeling builds again, different this time but even more intense. I can feel myself climbing toward something incredible, something that makes my entire body sing with anticipation.
“Let go,” he urges, his voice strained. “Come for me, Wednesday.”
And I do. The climax crashes over me like a tidal wave, stealing my breath and making me see stars. I’m vaguely aware of crying out, of my nails digging into his shoulders as waves of sensation roll through me.
Please don’t say it, I beg desperately to myself as I start to come down from the high.
Please don’t say it, please don’t say it.
But when I feel him surge into me one last time, his own release claiming him as he fills me with warmth and completion, it’s just too much. The words spill uncontrollably past my lips:
“I love you, Gavine.”
So, so much.
Chapter Nine
HE USED TO THINK PEOPLE who believed they were in love just because of fantastic sex were idiots.
And so life made sure the time had come for him to eat his words...since apparently it could happen, as he was now one of them.
I really might be in love with her.
The thought should terrify him. A month ago, it would have. But lying here in his king-sized bed with the morning sun streaming through the tall windows of his master suite, watching dust motes dance in the golden light while his wife sleeps curled against his chest, Gavine found he didn’t give a damn about his former convictions.
She was unlike any of the women he’d dated, but he realized now it was because he didn’t know any better back then. His idea of the perfect woman had been flawed and shallow, and so of course he would end up with someone just as flawed and shallow...like Jessica.
But Wednesday though...
He stared down at his wife, her naked body curled trustingly against his, delicate features made even more beautiful by sleep. Her long black hair spilled across his chest like silk, and those pale violet eyes were hidden beneath dark lashes that cast shadows on her porcelain cheeks. Even unconscious, she had one small hand pressed over his heart, as if claiming him.
She was so damn pure, so damn giving.
When she’d learned about the Bible study group Clarice held weekly with the staff, she had shyly asked if she could join, and even made quilted pouches for everyone’s Bibles as a thank you. He’d walked past the sun-drenched sitting room last Tuesday and seen her there, head bent over her sewing, surrounded by women who adored her. Women who’d initially been puzzled by her presence, treating her like an object of pity because they’d witnessed how coldly he’d treated her at first but didn’t understand why.
No fucking way Jessica would do something like that for anyone, and especially not for people she considered beneath her because they had nothing to offer her in exchange.
Wednesday, without even saying a word to him, had turned his world upside down just by being herself. She opened his once blind eyes to the truth, her smiles tearing down the walls he had built around his heart, one brick at a time, so that finally he would see for himself that his heart still worked. And it could still beat for someone.
“It’s fine, I know the way,” a sickeningly familiar voice played out from the hallway outside.
No, fuck, no.
He didn’t even have time to figure out how the hell she had been able to enter his home without his permission.
Bribery?
Deception?
It didn’t matter at this point.
Right now, what mattered was keeping his wife safe, and Gavine barely had time to whip the covers over Wednesday, and he heard the door open just as he sat up to face the last person on earth that he cared to see.
His lips tightened as he watched Jessica sailed into his bedroom like she owned it.
Or rather, like she still owned him.
Looking at her now, with her perfect blond hair, tight-fitting dress, and designer sunglasses perched on top of her head—
He couldn’t fucking believe that he had ever been attracted to this woman.
To the point that he had even been willing to pay for the privilege of having her as his wife.