Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
“Reciting penalties.”
“Why are you reciting penalties?”
“To find the strength I need to keep from fucking you in this car in front of all your neighbors.”
“Ah.” Her lips curve into a grin, amusement dancing in her eyes. “And is it working?”
“Fuck no,” I growl, squeezing her perfect ass again.
Her delighted laugh spills through the car, tearing at my self-restraint. Good God. How the mighty have fallen. Like a ton of bricks, right at her pretty little feet.
I growl, yanking my door open. Before she can even protest, I’m hauling us out of the danger zone. She stumbles when I set her on her feet, gaping up at me with a protest written all over her face.
I bend, dropping a hard kiss on her mouth. “I’m not fucking you in the car for the first time, little bird. My wife will be spread out in our bed so I can take my time,” I growl. “Go get your sh…things and stop torturing me.”
“Fine.” She stares up at me, those gray eyes locked on my face. “But just so you know, you brought this on yourself.”
“Oh, yeah? How do you figure that?”
“You married me.” She tosses her hair over her shoulder, one corner of her lips lifting into a saucy smirk. “Now, you get to put up with my bullshit.”
She turns to head inside, but I grab her, hauling her back against my chest. My lips land against her ear before I nip the shell of it.
“Don’t start a game you can’t win, baby girl,” I growl against her skin. “I’ll have you bent over and screaming for your husband so loud and so often, it’ll be the only word you remember for the next week.”
She whimpers softly, her body melting against mine for a split second. And then she seems to remember that she’s supposed to be giving me hell because she pulls herself out of my arms. Her eyes meet mine over her shoulder.
“Promises, promises,” she says before sashaying toward her house, her hips swaying.
I tip my head back, groaning up at the sky. But I don’t follow her inside. I’m not a complete idiot. I know damn well that I don’t have that kind of control, and I meant what I said. When I’m inside her for the first time, it’ll be in our bed.
“What is with you guys and your ridiculously large houses?” Wren mutters an hour later, shaking her head as she strolls around the kitchen, touching everything she can get her hands on.
“You don’t like the house?” I ask, actually worried about it. I bought this place six months ago with her in mind. The Cape Cod house isn’t ostentatious but is big enough for a family, with plenty of room to spread out.
The heated pool out back is fucking magical. It looks like a little oasis with a waterfall spilling down rocks on one side. She grew up near water. I wanted her to have the option here without having to drive to a public beach.
“It’s beautiful,” she says, glancing at me over her shoulder. “I just think it’s funny that single guys buy these massive houses.”
“Maybe we’re hopeful.”
A question reflects in her gaze.
“Some of us want families.” I shrug, leaning back against the island. “Maybe that’s what we’re planning for when we buy them.”
“Trust me, that is not what Micah was thinking when he bought his house. He didn’t want to drag a wife into this way of life until he met Elodie and realized he couldn’t live without her.” Something drifts through her gaze that I can’t read. “I always worried that was my fault.”
“Why would it be your fault, little bird?”
“You don’t know?”
I shake my head, my brows furrowed. I know Micah feels bad about the way she was raised, running all over the country for his games and shit, but his decisions aren’t her responsibility.
“I almost drowned when I was ten,” she whispers, and my blood runs cold. Jesus. “He’d just been drafted, and I thought…I don’t know.” She shrugs helplessly. “I guess I thought if I got into hockey like he was, he’d come home, our parents would stop fighting, and life would go back to normal. So I went out to this pond that had frozen over, determined to teach myself how to skate. He’d tried to teach me a dozen times, but I was always too clumsy.” Her lips twitch at the memory. “Anyway, I went out there to learn, but the ice was already thawing. I fell through it. By the time they pulled me out, I wasn’t breathing.”
“Jesus Christ,” I rasp, my heart hammering against my ribcage.
“I remember waking up in the hospital with him at my bedside in tears. He was so mad at me,” she whispers. “And so upset. He felt like he was the reason I was out there, like I wouldn’t have taken that risk if hockey hadn’t been our whole life growing up. It’s bothered him ever since.” She shrugs again, clearly uncomfortable with the memory. “I think that’s when he decided he didn’t want to get married.”