Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98789 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
I cleared my throat. “Of course, I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up. I haven’t had a single audition go well all year.”
“Stop.” She reached over and put a hand on my leg. “You’re going to get exactly what you want, Dash. I know it.”
Amused, I turned to look at her, setting my forearm across the steering wheel. “You’re an expert in psychic healing now, huh?”
“I don’t have to be an expert to see that you put it out into the universe that you’re willing to be more vulnerable in your work, and the universe answered back the very next day with this meeting. Sometimes one moment changes everything.”
“Huh. Maybe you’re right.”
“I am.” She unbuckled her seatbelt. “So if you’d like to come in and strip down to your purest self to celebrate, I know a place where our energies could meet.”
I turned off the engine. “Say no more.”
By the time we got inside, something was different.
I wasn’t in the mood to joke or play games or even to talk at all. I just wanted to get as close to her as possible. It was like I could feel the weight of the few days we had left bearing down on me. Like I could hear the ticking clock. Like I was being chased by something and only proximity to her would keep me safe.
I started kissing the back of her neck while she locked the front door. I kicked off my shoes and unbuckled my belt on the way to her bedroom. I removed every stitch of clothing from her body and mine within seconds, as if I had more than two hands. And when my head was cradled between her thighs, her hands grasping my hair, the unbearable sweetness of her on my tongue, I began to panic, wondering how many more times I would have her like this—warm and soft and whispering my name, inviting me inside.
What if I left and she moved on to someone else? What if another guy came along to watch movies with her and eat her cooking and know the sublime pleasure of her skin and her hair and her smile and her taste? What if he wasn’t good for her? Who would be here to protect her?
Sliding up her body, I covered it with my own, like I could hide her away from the world. Keep her safe. Keep her warm. Keep her mine. I eased inside her, angling my hips the way she liked, moving with slow, steady strokes that made her arch and sigh and pull me closer. Take me deeper. Urge me with her body and her voice to fuck her harder. Faster. Make her come. As the pressure built inside me, I felt it not just in my lower body, but moving like a tidal wave into my lungs, crashing over my heart, rushing over my head. I was drowning in conflicting desires—to fight and to surrender. To confess everything and admit nothing. To attach myself to her and to sever the strings.
Then her body tightened around my driving cock and all I could do was pour myself into her with every thrust and hope somehow she knew what she meant to me.
What she’d always mean to me.
“So what are you going to say in your toast to Devlin and Lexi?” Ari lay nestled against my side, her head on my shoulder, one bare leg tossed over my hips.
“I don’t know. Got any ideas for me, Miss I Read Nothing But Romance Novels?”
She laughed and continued brushing her fingertips in relaxing little circles on my chest. “Not really. Just speak from your heart. Be genuine. Say nice things about love and happily ever after.”
“Hmph.”
“Hmph?” She picked up her head. “Excuse me, but did you just harrumph at happily ever after?”
“I did not harrumph,” I clarified. “I made a slightly harrumph-like noise.”
She propped her head in her hand. “So do you believe in love and happily ever after? We’ve only talked about my views on the subject.”
“I believe in love,” I said carefully. “But I agree with you—not every love story can have a happy ending.”
Her face scrunched up. “Do not say that at the wedding, Dash.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I said, laughing. “But it’s true, just like you said. You can love someone and end up apart. For example, one of you might not survive the sinking of an ocean liner. One of you might get on a plane to make the world safe for democracy. One of you might have to marry a real d-bag named Wessex.”
“I’m so glad I made you watch all those romantic movies,” she said. “You really soaked up the emotional depth.”
“All I’m saying,” I said, tipping her onto her back and rolling on top of her, “is that it doesn’t mean you don’t love someone just because you go your separate ways. Maybe the timing is just wrong.”