Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93727 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
I knew she’d noticed. “They’re incredibly private,” I explained. “Paranoid to a fault. They wouldn’t want anyone to know that they’d been involved. One of them has a mate that’s completely off the radar, and I can’t repay them for their help by running my mouth.”
“Gotcha,” she sighed, her eyes growing heavy. “Well, I won’t say anything.”
“Appreciate it.”
“He trusts you, you know?”
“Who? Dalton?”
“Yeah. He told me before you got back that you were one of the best teammates he’d ever had.”
“Aw, he was talking about me?” I joked. “I’m touched.”
Her eyes lost the glassy look. “He was reassuring my aunt, who was pissed when she got here and you weren’t here.”
“Ah, that didn’t win me any points, huh?”
“You’re lucky she’d calmed down by the time you got back, or there’s a good chance you would’ve been buried in the backyard.”
I grimaced.
“It’s all right,” Rosemary said, patting my chest. For a split second, it felt like I was being burned until a rush of cool swept through my veins. “Once she realized I was fine, she mellowed.”
“Were you?” I asked quietly, smoothing my hand up her side. “I wasn’t. I was sweating so much my dad said I smelled like a goat.”
Rosemary let out a choked laugh.
“I nearly puked all over my lap while I was driving,” I continued. “Knowing that I’d be the one who would have to clean it up was the only way I kept that shit down.”
“Sounds terrible.”
“It wasn’t pleasant,” I conceded, wrapping my hand around the side of her neck. Her pulse beat comfortingly against my palm, and my mouth watered. “How bad was it for you?”
Something flashed in her eyes, but she just shrugged. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“Did the shower help?” I asked, remembering the beads of water on her shoulders.
“Not really,” she replied. “It felt pretty similar to getting the tattoo on my neck. Lots of little needles hitting everywhere.”
I flinched at the thought.
“A bath would probably be better,” she mused. “Not as violent.”
“Well, I’m here now,” I murmured, leaning forward to brush my lips over hers. “No bath needed.”
“Convenient,” she whispered back, leaning into the touch.
Her hands slid out from beneath the pillows, and I sighed in relief as they smoothed over my bare chest and down my stomach. They’d cooled a little since we’d been lying there, and each touch felt like a mixture of floating on my back in the middle of a lake and the first seconds of the downward slide of a rollercoaster. Every molecule in my body stood at attention while my heart seemed to slow its angry pounding.
It didn’t take long before both of us were naked. We’d kept a small barrier of clothing between us until then, as if it somehow made a difference, and maybe it had. Because the moment she pressed her bare body against mine, my willpower was toast. Spending those few hours apart had only intensified the instinct to get as close as possible. We were too hungry for the feel of skin on skin, too impatient. I moved with her as Rosemary rolled to her back, then froze as my hips settled between her thighs, the underside of my cock pressed against hot, wet skin.
“We’re not leaving here anytime soon,” Rosemary reminded me, her legs wrapping around the backs of my thighs. “Unless you want to ask my pop to leave his own home to give us privacy, we’ll have to do it here.”
I was paying attention to the best of my ability, but it felt like my brain was short-circuiting. She was right there. We were so godsdamned close. My hips moved without conscious thought, and Rosemary let out a little whimper of need.
“It’s supposed to be special,” I replied, focusing on her eyes. The pupils were huge with arousal, and around the edges, her irises had darkened into a thick line of darker green. “It’s the beginning of everything.”
Rosemary lifted her hands to frame my cheeks in her palms. “If you haven’t realized that our beginning started already, you haven’t been paying attention.”
I groaned and pressed our foreheads together as her hips rolled languidly.
“What are you waiting for?” she whispered.
Every euphemism and cliché I’d ever heard felt absolutely correct as I pressed inside her, both of us barely breathing. We fit perfectly, like a lock and key, a pair of puzzle pieces, a glove. She shuddered as I paused, fully inside her.
It was a miracle. The culmination of my entire life. There would never be anything better than that moment, with the light from the lamp illuminating her beautiful face, her nails pressed into my shoulders, and her body welcoming mine.
“Please tell me you’ve done this before,” she said nervously after a moment.
I choked on a laugh. I must’ve been lost in my head for too long. She looked so concerned.