Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 37324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
At least not until it buzzed again with a text from him.
Saxon
What time should I pick you up?
I laughed softly before typing my reply.
Me
Can you be here in thirty minutes? I just need to check a delivery before I leave.
Saxon
I’ll be there in fifteen.
Of course he would. The man lived in Manhattan but had spent every day this week in Long Island. And he’d never given me a straight answer about why he just so happened to always be heading back home just when I got off work, so I stopped asking. But that didn’t mean I quit giving him a hard time about other stuff.
Me
Are you going to behave?
It took him a minute to answer, and I could almost picture him smirking as he typed.
Saxon
I have no idea what you mean…
Me
You glared at Gloria’s client just because he looked at me for longer than five seconds.
Saxon
Habit.
Me
What kind of habit?
Saxon
Guarding what’s mine.
For a long moment, I just stared at the words. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, but I had no idea how to reply. Exploding ovaries apparently made it impossible for my brain to work.
Before I could decide what to say, another bubble appeared.
Saxon
See you soon, sunshine.
The breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding escaped in a shaky exhale.
I locked my phone, trying to calm the flutter in my chest, but it was useless. My hands were trembling, and I was grinning like a fool.
Lorna noticed and followed me into the storage room. “Should I assume your smile has something to do with a certain wide receiver?”
I groaned. “You are the nosiest person alive.”
“I live for this kind of entertainment. It’s the only drama I get these days, now that Cole’s too busy obsessing over nursery paint colors.”
“I’m not even dating him,” I insisted, though the heat crawling up my neck probably ruined my credibility.
Lorna arched a brow. “Uh-huh. Yet you’re standing there looking like you just won the lottery.”
“I am not.”
“Sure you’re not.” There was a knowing glint in her eyes. “You had a front-row seat to the start of my relationship with Cole, so you should already know that resistance is futile.”
Tilting my head to the side, I quirked a brow. “I don’t remember you fighting it except maybe for that very first night when he gave us a ride home from the club.”
“Exactly, because I knew better.” She pressed a quick kiss to my cheek before heading for the door. “But if I had, you would’ve been the first person pushing me into his arms.”
I sputtered out a laugh. “Yeah, I would have.”
She smirked at me over her shoulder. “So it only seems fair that I do the same for you.”
“Ugh, stop making so much sense while I’m all tangled in knots over Saxon,” I complained.
“Only if you can honestly say that his calling you ‘sunshine’ doesn’t make you feel the way I do when Cole says ‘Lass’ in that brogue of his.”
I couldn’t, and we both knew it.
8
SAXON
Iparked half a block from her building, where the street dipped into shadow and the brownstones cut the wind. The heater hummed, and the city noise thinned to the occasional hiss of a passing car. I killed the lights but left the engine running, sitting in the heavy silence for a minute.
The last few days had tested my patience and control. I could feel them slipping from my grasp.
Tonight, I wouldn’t kiss her at her door. I couldn’t.
I turned to her, and she was watching me with her deep brown eyes. Curious, but too wary to ask what I was thinking.
Slowly, I leaned over and took her mouth in a slow, exploring kiss. I thought that by kissing her in the car, rather than at her door, I was avoiding temptation.
I was very fucking wrong.
Passion exploded between us. I pushed her coat off her shoulders and felt her breath catch when my knuckles brushed the warm V of skin above her sweater. When I leaned back to remove my own coat, she didn’t move away. She just watched me, lips parted, pulse tapping at her throat and her breasts bouncing with each rushed breath.
“Come here.” I pulled Ivy across the console and settled her on my lap, my big hands guiding the curves of her hips. Her thighs opened to fit around me, and heat rolled off her in waves. She gasped when she felt me, the thick, heavy bulge pushing hard against the seam of her jeans. The soft shock in her eyes turned to something hungry.
“Fuck,” I murmured, tightening my arm to hold her exactly where I wanted her. “You’re killing me, sunshine.”
Her hands slid up my chest and over my shoulders while mine gripped her tighter. Keeping our gazes locked, I gently rocked her on my cock. Her breath broke, and the sound punched straight through my restraint. I angled her hips and dragged her down my length so she could feel every inch, slow and deliberate, until her lashes fluttered and her mouth fell open in a silent cry.