Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 488(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
I know she’s right. I know he’ll be okay, but I hold him on to him a little longer, pressing one last kiss on the top of his head. A month ago, I had nothing. No freedom. No joy. No one really cared whether I smiled or cried. Now I have this tiny creature who looks at me like I hung the moon, and a man who brought him home just because he remembered that I have a soft spot for dogs. The thought makes my eyes sting with happy tears that I don’t bother hiding.
Ricci walks in then, carrying two leather duffel bags. He stops in the doorway when he sees me, and a soft smile curves his lips. Yup, the one that still makes my stomach flip every single time. His eyes move over me holding the puppy, and something warm and possessive flickers across his face.
“I told you, you can take him with you,” he says softly. “You don’t have to leave him behind. We’re flying private.”
I hesitate, looking down at the puppy’s big dark eyes and that perfect pink nose. Part of me wants to say yes so badly — to keep him close, to have him with us on this trip. But I know myself. I know how easily I get distracted when I’m happy, and I want this weekend to be about us. Just us. Just me and Ricci.
“Nah,” I say reluctantly, pressing one last kiss to the top of the puppy’s head before handing him over to Rebecca. “He’ll distract me. I’ll have eyes for no one but him.”
Ricci laughs. “In that case, he is banned from the trip.”
Ricci’s eyes meet mine across the kitchen, and the look we share is so intimate, so full of everything we’ve been building these past weeks, that I feel heat rush up my neck and across my cheeks. I blush. Hard. We’ve become so close, so much more intimate over the past month. He’s been incredibly considerate and patient in ways I never expected from a man like him. A part of me is still waiting for the other shoe to drop, still braced for the kind of casual cruelty I knew so well before. But it hasn’t come. Not once. And because it hasn’t, I’ve decided I want to completely let go and just revel in him and us.
This is my attitude for our vacation. I want to enjoy every single second of it.
Ricci comes over, gently pulls me away from Rebecca and Freddie. His strong, warm fingers lace through mine, and we head out of the apartment together. The driver is already waiting downstairs to pick up our luggage. We’re going for the weekend to a villa by the beach in California, and the thought still feels surreal. Like something that happens to other people.
As we step into the elevator, I glance up at him. “Have you ever been to California?”
He nods, thumb brushing slowly over the back of my hand. “Several times. For work. Never on vacation, though. So this should be interesting.”
He asks me the same once we’re settled in the car. I hesitate for a second, then tell him the truth.
“Yes. When I was much younger, I went there with a friend looking for work.” I pause, the memory still carrying a faint sting. “She made it sound so good, but it turned out we would be working as glorified escorts. My father really needed the money even then, but I just couldn’t do it, so I left on the next flight.”
He goes silent beside me. I feel the shift in the air, the way his body tenses just slightly. “Things have been difficult for you, haven’t they?”
I look out the window for a moment before turning back to him with a smile. “Yes. But now… suddenly I’m flying private and going on a weekend trip with my husband.” I shake my head at how absurd it sounds. “Isn’t that insane?”
He leans down, cups my face with one big hand, and kisses me deeply. His mouth is slow and thorough, tongue sliding against mine in a way that makes me melt into him. My fingers curl into the front of his shirt as the world outside the car fades away. There’s only the taste of him and the steady, possessive way he holds me.
Chapter Sixty-One
RICCI
Ikiss her like a starving man, because that is what I am. Over the past few weeks, she’s become even more intoxicating to me. No matter what we do, no matter how many times I have her, I just can’t get enough, but right now I’m trying to stay cognizant of the driver in front. So I force myself to pull back, while my hand stays on her thigh, though, thumb stroking slow circles.
Her cheeks flush, eyes dark with the same hunger I feel. We manage to behave for the rest of the drive, but the tension between us is thick enough to cut. When we finally pull up to the private airstrip, I dismiss the flight attendant the second she steps forward to greet us.