Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
He goes very still. It’s a surprising stillness. He’s normally calm and composed, but now this is the patient, ready attention of a predator searching for prey.
“How do you know I was doing anything?”
“I don’t, I mean, I just assumed—“
His fingers brush against my neck. I pull back, but his hand laces into my hair, tugging me closer. I gasp in surprise as he bends down, mouth near to mine.
“Why are you assuming you know anything about me, Tallie?”
“Can you—please—“
“Please, what, baby?” His voice sends a pang between my legs. The memory of him licking me—kissing me there—those sloppy, hungry, praising noises he made—
“I don’t know, I mean…” My head’s fuzzy with desire and my skin’s on fire.
“Please, what?” He tightens his grip, mouth inches from mine, and I know what he’s doing. On some level it’s hard not to notice it, and I should be better than this, I should be stronger. I should push him away and laugh in his face, like this is something that I’ll actually fall for.
Instead, he kisses me hard, and I melt for it.
An agonizing, mortifying noise escapes my lips. It’s a whimper and a groan, a gasping needy sound from deep in my throat as I kiss him back, gripping onto his shoulder, then throwing my arms around his neck. I press into him a little too hard, bruising lips to teeth, not caring at all as the physical want I’ve barely kept at bay since we first met hits me like a falling tree. I shimmy, moving to straddle him, grinding down as his free hand finds my breast over my thin night shirt, squeezing roughly and making me moan as my core lights on fire—
“Tallie?” The voice is soft and coming from my closed door. “Are you awake?”
Oh fuck.
I throw myself off Brenden in a panic. He seems amused more than anything else and reaches for me, probably trying to pull me back into his lap.
“Annie!” I hiss at him. “She comes in—“
“Door’s locked,” he whispers, getting to his feet. “Don’t worry. I thought ahead.”
“Tallie?!” Annie knocks lightly now and jiggles the knob. “What are you doing in there? Oh gross, don’t tell me it’s something disgusting. I wanted to talk about earlier.”
I careen from door back to Brenden like a muppet. He covers his mouth, trying not to laugh, and it’s not fucking funny. I drag him up and shove him toward the closet. “Hide. Hide now!”
“Tallie, baby—“
“Hide, dickhead. Just hide and I’ll get rid of her.”
His eyes are sparkling with delight and he lets me hustle him into my walk in closet. I catch a glimpse of him sighing as I shut the door in his face, body tingling with pent up need and interrupted desire. I fix myself, take a few short breaths, and wrench open my bedroom door.
Annie’s in the hallway and looks startled as I appear out of nowhere, doing my best to lean casually on the frame, and pretty sure I look like a maniac.
“What do you need? I wasn’t doing anything weird.”
Annie’s big eyes blink. “Wow. Okay. That’s convincing.”
“You woke me up.”
“You sleep with your door locked?”
“Now I do! It’s my room!” I’m feeling shrill and crazy. I force myself to bring it down a level. “What’s going on?”
Annie clearly thinks I’m hiding something, probably a weird masturbation habit, but luckily she lets it pass. “I wanted to talk about earlier at the dress shop. I know how hard this has been for you, and the whole arrangement is moving very fast, and I don’t think I was being very fair, and—“ She frowns, craning her head to look over my shoulder. “Why do you keep looking back in your room?”
“What? No, I’m not doing that.” But obviously I was. I can’t help myself. What the hell would happen if Annie caught Brenden in my room? She’d freak, that’s what. Even if he’s my fiance, he’s still a strange man who broke into our house. That violates everything she believes.
“Okay, whatever.” Annie’s sharpness comes out. She’s clearly getting sick of this, and I can’t blame her. “I wanted to apologize, okay? I was out of line and too hard on you. I still think you need to accept what’s happening, but I could’ve been nicer about it, that’s all.”
I touch her arm before she can storm off. I know how hard this must be for her and I’m not being fair. I can’t think of the last time she admitted she was wrong about something, and she clearly was thinking about this if she came to see me in the middle of the night.
“Thank you for saying that. I really appreciate it. And thank you for being such a big help with all this wedding stuff.”
She softens. “Someone’s got to do it.”
“It doesn’t have to be you, but I’m thankful it is anyway. It’s going to be beautiful.”