Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59690 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 298(@200wpm)___ 239(@250wpm)___ 199(@300wpm)
We stopped at a bench in the vineyard, completely secluded from even the noise of the party. She wrapped her arms around my neck. Her eyes nearly silver in the moonlight. So open, so trusting. All mine.
I slid my hands down her legs and hoisted her up into my arms. She wrapped her legs around my waist. Then, her mouth descended, capturing a perfect kiss.
“I’ll tell you a secret if you tell me one of your own,” I whispered against her lips.
“I have a scar on my hip from ice skating.”
“I have one on my eyebrow from kayaking.” I kissed her again. “Trade me another.”
“I’m in love with my family’s enemy who is way too old for me.”
I chuckled softly. “I’m in love with my family’s enemy who is way too young for me.” My hands slipped up to her ass. “Trade me one more.”
She pulled back just enough to meet my gaze. “Being with you terrifies me.”
I blinked in surprise. “Why is that?”
“Because there’s nothing I want more in the entire world and I’d watch it all burn to keep this.”
My heart stuttered at her honesty.
She bit her lip. “Your secret?”
So, I gave her the truth.
“I feel like I can’t breathe when I’m with you,” I whispered like an admission. “Like everything is so fucking good and so fucking real. That I don’t know how I went a single minute of my life without you in it. Sometimes, I pause and wonder how I got this lucky and how everyone else can’t see it and how I don’t fucking care because I feel it in every inch of my body.”
She didn’t balk at my honesty. She didn’t look like she was ready to run. She looked a hundred and ten percent in this. As much as I was.
“Chase,” she pleaded.
It was all the motivation I needed before laying her out on that bench and laying claim to her body, mind, and soul.
She gasped at the first thrust as I moved inside of her, but she never closed her eyes. She looked directly at me, saw every piece of me, and accepted me for who I was. She wanted this. I wanted this. I would fight to keep it at any cost.
Our body thumped together rhythmically. The only sound other than our heavy breathing. Her fingers traced my jawline before pulling me in for another kiss. A silent promise of her affection. The love that had developed and sharpened to a razor’s edge. And I felt all of it.
As we pushed to climax, everything shattered, dissolving into starlight and reforming into this union. With the woman that I loved with my entire fucking heart.
PART III
BLUFF
13
HARLEY
“I have an idea,” Chase said as we sat in his Porsche.
I reached across the stick shift and took his hand. “Is it that we don’t go to dinner?”
He grimaced. “You read me so easily.”
“You’ve been dreading this all week.”
“Haven’t you?”
I shrugged. Yes, of course I’d been anxious about what was to come, but I didn’t want Chase to see it. Not if I could help it.
“I mean…is it that bad of an idea?”
“It’s the best idea,” I agreed. “But we can’t.”
Chase sighed and started the engine. “I know.”
After the wedding, Chase had been good to his word. He’d scheduled dinner with his dad. Ashleigh hadn’t told him about us. Chase would get to be the one to do it. Not that he wanted to be the one to do it. In fact, some part of me wondered if he was hoping that Ashleigh would just spill the news so it’d all be out there. I was sure he didn’t actually want that, but equally sure he didn’t really want his father to know at all.
I couldn’t blame him. I felt the same about my dad, and I didn’t work with him every day. Holding it in day in and day out must have been torture.
“Are you worried about me being there?”
Chase pulled out of the driveway and veered south toward his father’s house. “I’m worried about it all.”
“You could go by yourself?” I offered.
“Do you not want to meet my dad?” he asked in a teasing voice.
“Would you blame me?”
“Not at all. He’s an ass.” He sighed and stopped at the Stop sign. His eyes found mine. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
“No, I’m not backing out. I was trying to give you an option for whatever made this easier for you. You were there for me when everyone on my side found out. You don’t have to do this alone.”
“Yet you’re sticking that bottom lip out,” he said, leaning over and sucking it between his teeth. “The pout is too cute.”
“I’m not pouting,” I said, dragging him deeper into a kiss.
His laugh was a rumble. “I’ll turn around. We can stay home. I can order in Chinese.”