Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
I know I can’t take her—not here. The timing is all wrong. Yet the need to watch her come is so strong that I can’t stop myself. I let my fingers continue to travel, until I’m pushing under her bra. I palm her breast loving how the hard nipple pushes against my hand—as if begging for more.
“Eli,” she whimpers as my lips travel from her mouth down the sweet valley of her neck.
“Right here, baby,” I rumble, my voice hoarse and full of need.
“It feels so good,” she whimpers, her breathing ragged.
“I want to make you feel better. Will you let me, sweetheart?”
“But Dad, Cammie …” she says, completely torn.
“I just want to help you ease that ache between your legs. I can’t make love to you tonight. When I do that, I want to be able to take my time with you. I can give you what you need for now. Let me do that, Daphne. Please?”
She worries her bottom lip, her hair mussed from our lovemaking, her face flushed, and her hips still rocking against me. I bring my free hand up to brush my thumb across her lip. I wait for her answer and the entire time, I feel as if I can’t breathe.
“Okay,” she says. That one word is a mixture of submission and a moan of hunger, and nothing has sounded better in my entire life. I stand up with her in my lap. She immediately wraps her legs around me, and just like that something snaps into place. I will do anything to have this woman. To feel her legs wrapped around me, her body submitting to me, is like nothing I’ve experienced in this world, but I want more. I won’t stop until I can hear her say she loves me, hear her admit that she’s utterly and completely mine. For now, I’ll settle for the way she’s clinging to me and directing me to her bedroom.
Chapter 24
Daphne
I don’t know how we got to my room. I just know that I’m turned on more than I’ve ever been in my life. The feel of being in Eli’s arms is more than anything I’ve known—more than anything I’ve ever imagined. I feel as if finally, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. He is where I belong. Eli is what my heart has been searching for, even without me knowing it. I’ve never felt this whole and complete. It probably sounds ridiculous, pretty words tied up with a bow that has no substance, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. This man is my future, I know that as much as I know I’m Cammie’s mother and my purpose is to make sure she’s safe, happy and loved.
As he lays me on the bed, I reach up to him, not wanting to be away from him for a second. He takes my hand and kisses it, his gaze never leaving mine. Seconds tick by but they could be hours or even days. Time kind of stand stills for me as I look at this magnificent man who has changed my life. He picked up the broken pieces in me and held me back together until I was strong enough to heal. It doesn’t matter how quickly it happened, or how intense it is. We’re not going to burn out. What I feel in my heart for him is too deep, too encompassing.
We stare at one another for a moment longer, then his graveled whisper hits me like a blast of heat, stretching across my body and fueling my hunger in ways nothing else could. “Take your clothes off, baby. I want to see my woman.”
My breathing gasps turn even more ragged. He could help me undress. His words are more about me giving this to him—giving my body to him. It’s my submission he wants. Maybe he wants to see that I’m positive about the two of us. I’m not sure, but I know that whatever he needs, I want to give it to him. I feel safe with Eli. It’s a feeling I haven’t felt since the extremely early days with Dane and even then, it wasn’t this intense. The thought makes me smile.
I sit up in my quiet bedroom. The only light is a small bedside table that is muted and turned to the lowest setting. I only keep it on to make sure I don’t trip over something as I go to bed. I’ve always been more comfortable in the dark—especially during sex. Looking up at Eli, I have the urge to turn every light in the room on—as bright as they can go. There’s no time for all of that right now and I hate it. I force myself to concentrate on the here and now. This is just mine and Eli’s beginning. There will be more. My smile deepens as I look up at this beautiful man. Slowly I stand in the small space between him and the bed. My eyes never leave his as I begin lifting my shirt over my head. I let it fall on the floor, loving the way his gaze seems to intensify. He holds his body rigid as if he’s dying to reach out and touch me. Even in the surety of this moment, I’m nervous. Only one man has ever seen me completely nude. A man who wasn’t careful with my feelings, who toward the end treated me more like an acquisition than a person who loved him. I’m afraid that Eli may look at the extra weight I carry that I can never seem to get rid of, the stretch marks from carrying Cammie, the small imperfections that have gathered with time—all of it—and find I’m not the woman he’s built in his mind. Yet, in his gaze I find nothing but … love. He’s not said that particular word to me yet, but it doesn’t bother me. Dane said the word all the time and it was cold. With Eli, I feel it from him. The difference is both stark and reassuring. I keep my gaze locked on him as I unbutton my jeans. The sound of the zipper sliding down seems unusually loud as it echoes in my ears. Eli’s presence still grounds me, though. I slide my pants over my thighs, as Eli bend down on one knee and takes over. I put my hand on his shoulder as he lifts one leg, taking the pants off. Then, he does the same with the other. Once that is done, neither of us move. My breath hitches in my throat when his warm, rough fingers hitch on each side of the flimsy lace fabric, and he slides them down my legs. I send up a silent prayer of thanks that I wore sexy underwear and not my usual white, cotton utilitarian ones. I make a note, to get rid of all the white ones and to go shopping for sexier ones while I’m at it.