Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“Most of the time, you’re glaring at me or storming away from me. Even today, it was like it killed you to say even a few nice things to me. You left the classroom without so much as a goodbye. You’ve been ignoring me all night. One moment, you’re looking at me like I’m… I don’t know, a blessing or something. And the next, it’s like you wish I’d never been born.”
I ground my teeth together, Adam’s apple bobbing hard in my throat.
But I couldn’t speak.
A flash of earlier that day hit me hard in the chest, when she’d laughed off her job and acted like she was nothing special. I’d wanted to tell her how wrong she was, and I’d started to — before remembering why I never tried to articulate thoughts like that.
I was terrible with words.
It was easier for me to show what I thought and felt through actions, through touch.
But I sure as fuck couldn’t touch her.
So what was I supposed to do?
Couldn’t she see it? Couldn’t she feel it, too? When I looked at her, she squirmed beneath my gaze like it was a heat lamp. When I so much as brushed a part of her skin, I swore I heard her suck in a breath and hold it just as I did.
She had to know I was holding back. She had to understand that I wanted her so fucking badly I was making myself sick trying to refrain from giving in. And if she didn’t know, if she was waiting for me to say it…
How could I tell her the truth, when I wasn’t even ready to admit it to myself?
“You know why I left without saying anything,” I finally ground out, the words raspy and harsh.
Chloe’s breaths picked up speed, her nostrils flaring. I watched that determination slide over her again, despite how she swallowed and paled a bit.
And then, she pressed her weight onto her hands, lifted herself, and slid into the water.
Fuck.
My heart tripped over itself before starting to race, and it beat faster and faster as I watched her body disappear beneath the water. The line of it rested just under her breasts when she was all the way in, lifting the weight of them, her nipples hardening into peaks.
“I’m afraid I don’t know,” she breathed, but that breath betrayed her. Everything about her body screamed that she knew exactly what I wouldn’t say.
Goosebumps spread over her arms and chest.
Her eyelids fluttered.
Her hands shook until she submerged them beneath the water.
She took one small, slow step toward me, and then another, her brown eyes locked on mine.
“Chloe,” I warned.
“Mr. Perry.”
My next breath flared my nostrils, and I curled my hands into fists by my sides to keep from reaching for her, to keep from pinning those soft hips against the wall of this pool and sliding my thigh right between hers. I wanted to tell her to call me Will, but fuck if I didn’t like the way she said Mr. Perry. Fuck if it didn’t make me think about bending her over and making her call me all kinds of names.
She slid another inch toward me.
And panic sliced me like a knife.
“Stop.”
The word shot out of me.
Chloe did as I said.
Her eyes widened a bit like she hadn’t expected that, but she didn’t dare test any more of what little space was left between us.
I could feel the heat of her body through the water.
One step, and I could close that gap.
One touch, and I could witness those pretty eyes of hers fluttering shut, her lips parting for me.
One moan from her would be all it took for me to surrender, to fuck her right here, right now, and not relent until I’d taken everything she had to give.
But I couldn’t.
I couldn’t risk Ava losing her just so I could have one selfish night.
And I couldn’t risk hurting her — because I knew I would. I didn’t know how to do anything else, not anymore.
Still, I couldn’t deny myself just one small pleasure.
Tentatively, I took that step, sucking in a breath just as Chloe did when we were close enough for our skin to brush.
Water dripped from my hands as I raised them from the water. I swallowed hard, sliding my hands along her jawbone until my fingers curled at the base of her neck.
She closed her eyes on a stuttering breath, tilting her chin up, waiting.
My heart slugged to a stop at the way her silky hair felt in my hands, at how my jaw clenched hard when I dropped my forehead to hers, our noses brushing gently. She kept her eyes closed for the longest time, and when she opened them, I wanted to die.
I saw every emotion, every want and desire in her luminous gaze.
And I saw every reminder of why I couldn’t get involved.