Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 136743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
“Sol!” My name is torn from him, and he stills, trembling over me, his eyes clenched shut, his powerful body taut and somehow vulnerable even in its strength.
I know we’ve both been married before. This wasn’t the first time for either of us, but something broke through inside me, and I think in him too. The clues are in the kisses he drops into my hair. The soft words of praise he leaves along my collarbone, the undersides of my breasts, my rib cage, like even though we are done, he can’t stop loving on me. He looks into my eyes and I can’t help but think he feels it too. It’s a shoot bursting through fallow ground, and as I fall asleep in the cradle of his strong arms, I recognize that it may have just begun to grow, and it may still be tender, but it’s already fierce.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
JUDAH
I know I have to let her go, but dammit, how?
Not just let Soledad leave my house. Of course she has to return to her girls. Aaron will probably only last another night at Tremaine’s before he packs his bag and stands at the door. He’s been known to sit in the back seat of the car, waiting for them to bring him home. So I have to get back to my life, to my responsibilities, to my boys too. I don’t mean how will I let her leave tonight, but what will I do if this is it? She said one night.
The hell.
One night? With her? Impossible. But I don’t know how to ask for more without derailing what she’s trying to do for herself now. I don’t want her self-partnering anymore. I want to be her partner. I want to be the one she leans on and for her to be whom I lean on in return. I want us to sort the tangled fibers of our lives, to knock down the barriers to being together. I want her to be whole.
I just want to be whole with her.
How do you fix something that doesn’t feel broken? Because her in my bed, naked, with her hair flowing all over my pillow, feels right. And however I can have this, I will. I already know I’ll take this however I can get it. However she will give it.
It’s getting late, and a sense of unease starts to creep in. I should wake her. Her kids are fine at home by themselves. She said they stay home alone often, but still. It’s been a rough day for them. Seeing their dad in prison has to have been hard. I glance at my watch on the nightstand. This woman tipped my whole world on its axis, and she has been here less than two hours.
“Maybe she can stay a little longer,” I mumble, sliding back under the covers and reaching for her. She’s petite… but the ass, the hips, the legs—perfectly thick. The sheet falls away, and I caress the velvety mole in the center of her spine, like a drop of midnight on a gold shore of smooth back and shoulders.
“Damn,” I groan into her neck, unable to resist rolling her over, kissing down between her breasts and taking one berry-colored tip into my mouth. “Shit.”
“You’re a very profane lover,” Soledad grumbles, gripping both sides of my head and running her hand over my face. “But I like it.”
“You do?” I release her breast with a pop, grinning up at her. “So you’ll keep me?”
The laughter slowly fades, and she runs her thumb across my brows, down my jaw, and over my lips. “We’ll see. That was a test drive.”
“Then let’s take another ride.” I rise up on my knees and grab her by the thighs, crawling between her legs, only to start tickling her ribs.
“Judah!” she gasps, rolling away from my fingers. “Stop! I can’t take it.”
“I see that.”
I laugh, sitting with my back against the headboard and pulling her up to straddle me and then closer for a kiss. The kiss starts playful but heats and boils over until she’s rolling her hips over my hardening erection. We’re lost in each other again, but some distant sound breaks the flow of the kiss.
“Oh, shoot!” Soledad rolls away, leaving my arms and bed empty. She grabs my sweatshirt, scrambling to push her arms and head through it. “That’s my phone. We’re supposed to be doing a vision board party tonight.”
She rushes out, and her footsteps thud down the stairs. I pull on my jeans, not bothering with a shirt, and follow.
“Yeah, honey. I know,” Soledad says, the phone at her ear, her hip propped against the kitchen counter. “But could you just calm down? Tell Inez I said to give your sweater back. I’ll work on the stain when I get home, and you should be fine for pictures this week.”