Total pages in book: 173
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163328 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 817(@200wpm)___ 653(@250wpm)___ 544(@300wpm)
When my hand caught the belts at his hip, he released me to remove the straps, sashes, and shirt, leaving his body bare from the waist up.
Lean muscle rippled across the inverted triangle of his torso. Lantern light glinted off smooth tawny skin, accentuating thick shoulders, defined arms, and deeply cut abs.
Christ almighty, he was gorgeous. Too immaculately designed. Too much man for one woman. I’d known that when I met him. I’d acknowledged the promise of heartbreak all over that divine face.
I’d mistakenly believed my heart was immune to it.
His grip returned to my jaw, angling it upward to expose the curve of my throat to his plundering mouth.
My breath fled as I flattened my palms on his chest, shuddering at the hard heat of him. His body was an effigy of chiseled art, an omnipotent sculpture to be coveted and revered. By the eternal God, I wanted to rub up against him, climb him like an animal, and ride him until I reached nirvana.
My plan didn’t require me to fuck him. But dammit, what would be the harm? Would it be so bad to escape the loneliness for a little while? Just an hour or two of mindless bliss? I could still have him chained in the bilge by morning.
My body decided for me, rushing heat between my legs and spasming inner muscles. My hand moved on its own, slipping between us and gripping his swollen length through the thin breeches.
“God’s blood.” He groaned against my throat, and his teeth sank in, laying siege to delicate skin and nerve endings.
I curled my fingers around his girth and explored the thick shape of him, thrilling in the way he jerked and throbbed in my fist. “You feel positively feral, Mr. Farrell.”
He choked on his next breath and lifted his head. “It’s been two years, Mrs. Farrell.”
Our eyes met, and it hurt to look at him. Hurt to feel him this hard and coiled with arousal. He was so insanely, potently attractive. His neck muscles tensed with need. Sculpted cheekbones sharpened with intensity, and full lips parted on a famished breath.
“I will not lose you again.” He grabbed my throat and dove in for the kiss.
My pulse went wild as Priest slanted his mouth over mine, possessing me with ravenous audacity. The fury he’d carried aboard my ship disintegrated beneath his desire, and I melted with him, surrendering to the fire that burned so fiercely between us.
Sweet heaven, the way he dragged the flat of his tongue against mine, licking me, panting, and vibrating guttural noises across my lips… His loss of control was an aphrodisiac, driving my own heedless plunge from hatred to lust.
His hands wandered, and his kiss hungered, feeding on me with voracious, impatient strokes as if I embodied what he needed to survive. I wanted to give him what he sought. I ached to give him everything.
“Bennett.” He growled and bit down on my bottom lip, sucking hard and humming deep in his chest.
Maybe I imagined the devotion in the fingers that caressed my back, but I didn’t care if it wasn’t real. He was holding me, kissing me, taking pleasure in being with me. His love and fidelity were all I’d ever wanted from him.
He fisted my shift, gathering it up my legs. Crisp air hit my wetness, and competent fingers slid up my bare thigh. Fingers that promised wicked pleasure. And pain. Years of it. Because they belonged to a cold-hearted philanderer.
An adulterous knave.
A cheater who would cheat again.
My mouth stopped moving against his, and my breathing fell into simmering stillness.
I was dancing with the devil, a master manipulator. He was so adept at reading people, reaping their weaknesses, and furtively using them to his own advantage that I wouldn’t know what he was taking from me until it was gone.
Like the compass.
And my undivided focus on recovering it.
He leaned back and narrowed his eyes, marking the hard anger in mine.
I thought I could deceive him at his own game, but here I was, falling under his spell again, letting myself get swept away by the mysterious alchemy that bound us together. I wanted this man to the point of madness. His body. His love. I craved him with a recklessness that would cost me everything.
Oh, how I wished I could indulge in a night of bedplay, just once more, then toss him away after. He deserved no better. But my heart wasn’t strong enough for copulation. Not with Priest.
I looked away and focused all thought on the goal. Without warning or so much as a glance in his direction, I made a swipe for the compass in his breeches.
He caught my hand and made a scolding sound. “Once I have you as my wife, in every way, you’ll have the compass.”
Of course, I knew it wouldn’t be easy.