Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106806 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
“I visited my brother this morning—at his hotel.” He scans my bedroom, the unmade bed, last night’s cotton PJs rumpled in the corner, and the romance novel on my bedside table. “You still have a thing for romance heroes, huh? I wonder how well my brother fits the bill.”
“They’re books. They’re entertaining. Don’t read so much into it.”
He scans my space one more time. “Interesting that you don’t have your fiancé staying here with you.”
“What’s your point, Oliver?”
“Just making an observation.” He steps leisurely toward me. This close, I can see his dark stubble—already breaking through from this morning’s shave. This close, I can feel his heat. “Look at you,” he murmurs.
Oliver is in my apartment. In my bedroom.
I’m too mesmerized by his gentle touch on my shoulder to put distance between us.
His callused fingers are rough against my skin, and I’m so dizzy with the longing and heartache from the past and present pulling me in two different directions that I have to close my eyes.
“Fucking look at you,” he whispers. His fingers skim across my collarbone then dip down to ghost over the swell of my breast. “Tell me you missed me. Fucking lie to me if you have to. I’ve missed you. So goddamned much.”
“Oliver,” I rasp. Maybe it’s been eight years, but I know this man well enough to know he’d stop if I asked. He’d leave if I asked. But I have missed him. More than I even realized. Every time he touches me, it feels like being reunited with a lost piece of my heart. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”
“I’m supposed to be wherever the fuck I want to be. And right now . . .” He dips his head, and when he speaks again, every word hums against my ear. “Right now I want to be right here.”
I’m trembling. This is unfair. I wasn’t prepared. This is three times now that I’ve had to face him without warning, and I’m so unsteady.
“I will spend the entire night thinking about getting you out of this dress and what I’m going to do when you come to me after the reception. I can’t decide if I want to unzip it myself so my hands are ready for all this beautiful skin when the dress falls away or if I want you to do it for me while I sit back and watch.”
“You’re delusional.”
“Am I? Are you going to pretend you haven’t been thinking about it? About us? About what it would be like to be in my bed again?”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, even as I sway toward him. “To punish me?”
He nips at my ear. “Do you need to be punished for something, Savannah?” Those warm fingers trail down my back, between my shoulder blades, and dance along the length of the zipper. I half expect him to unzip me now, but he doesn’t. “Like lying to me? Lying to Alec’s whole family?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He hums. His palm flattens on my low back before shifting to my hip, the touch both tender and sensual. My body buzzes. “You always were a terrible liar.”
I open my eyes, step back, and lift my chin. “Unlike you. You were always good at it.”
His smile is so sad. “I never wanted to hurt you. I always believed I could walk away, but even after all this time . . .”
“Why are you here? What do you want?”
“What about what you want?” His gaze travels to my thighs and then back up, as if he can see right through the black fabric of my dress. “Have you given much thought to what you want?”
“What I want doesn’t concern you.”
“You’re wrong about that. It’s always concerned me. From the first night we met, there was nothing that concerned me more than giving you what you wanted.”
“There you go, rewriting history again. You wanted to take something from Chuck and get your things back from Charles. That was why you paid my debt. That was why you took me in.”
“That was what I told myself. That was what I wanted to believe. Your name was just the excuse I needed to get you close. I wanted you close from the moment I fed you for the first time.” His knuckles graze my stomach. Up and back down with only the barest contact. Shivers of pleasure and anticipation race down my spine. “You were the only person who ever thought better of me. The only one who believed there was any kindness in this bitter heart. And I ruined that, didn’t I? Now I’m standing here wondering if I can ever convince you to see that side of me again.”
I still see it. I know who you are. But I bite back the words. “You’re too late for that.”