Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
A wave of possession crashed over me.
My cock throbbed at my jeans.
I wanted to tell her that she hadn’t even had me. That I’d only just begun. That she had no fucking clue what I had in store for her.
“Not sure you could handle what I want to do to you.” The words were gravel. Dropping like stones that began to topple before a full rockslide decimated everything.
I needed to resurrect the barrier I never should have lowered.
Except a fresh wave of desire spilled out of her, and the heavy heat of her scent invaded my senses.
Those eyes flamed with wild interest. This woman who had always trusted me when she shouldn’t.
In restraint, I ground my molars, and I turned and snatched her underwear from the floor and wound them up her legs.
She sat forward a fraction, her legs dangling to the sides as I remained kneeling between them. My chest heaved and my body strained as catastrophic thoughts banged through my brain.
My hands tingled with the need to dive right back in.
So close to cracking, I turned and pressed my mouth to the inside of her knee, needing to touch her one more time but knowing I had to put an end to this.
Then I forced myself to stand.
I towered over the woman who gazed up at me like I was some kind of dream and not the monster who had ruined her life.
Tentatively, she brushed her fingers over the pounding at my chest then started to trace them down my abdomen.
A blaze lit in their wake.
A painful taunt.
Only she didn’t stop.
She dragged them all the way down to the button of my jeans. She gave a little tug.
My cock raged, and a rush of lightheadedness made it difficult to see.
I was so close to breaking. So close to stepping over a line. Hell, there was no question I’d already hurtled over it just having her like this.
“Not going there,” I gritted.
“Cash, I…”
“Not going there, Daisy.”
My hands fisted at my sides, and she chewed at the inside of her cheek the way she always did when she was upset or nervous before she slowly slid off the edge of the counter. She landed on her feet.
The brightest fucking light.
The morning.
The sun.
That bolt of bright color in the middle of the bleak.
She brushed her hand down my chest again. “You take a shower in here and get cleaned up. I’ll get you some fresh clothes and leave them on the bed. I’m going to sleep on the couch.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Just…please,” she muttered.
Then she dipped down and grabbed her leggings from the floor, turned to walk away, though she stopped at the doorway.
Her gaze filled with the type of understanding I couldn’t fathom. “You don’t have to hide from me, Cash. I already know who you are.”
Then she turned and slipped out the door.
My hands shot to the counter, and I bent in two as I struggled to draw the oxygen back into my lungs. Trying to pull my shit together when the only thing I wanted to do was chase after her.
But I couldn’t do that. I had no right.
Breaths shuddering, I forced myself to straighten. I shucked out of my jeans and underwear, barely noticing the pain of the injuries.
I wasn’t lying when I told her I walked through life mostly numb, though right then, I was feeling all the things I shouldn’t feel.
I lumbered to the shower and turned it on. It took only a second for the water to heat, and a misty fog filtered out into the bathroom. As disorienting as I felt.
I stepped into the spray.
Hot water pelted my flesh, and the warmth rushed over me, though I found no comfort in it. It was just the tormenting remnants of her touch and her words and her taste written all over me. I reached out and pressed my palm to the wall, propping myself up as the spray pounded my head and shoulders.
My cock throbbed to the point of agony.
My insides a toil of knots and lust and a desperation unlike anything I’d ever felt.
Fisting myself, I gave a hard stroke.
Her name left me on a gush. “Daisy.”
And I knew I had to be dreaming. That I was losing my grip. Sliding off the side of a quickly crumbling cliff.
Because she was suddenly right there, standing in the glass doorway, that cinnamon hair raining around her. And she stepped forward into the shower and dropped to her knees.
THIRTY
DAISY
How was I supposed to just leave? Walk out after he had touched me the way he had and know that he was suffering the same?
I could feel it radiating off him.
Lust.
Greed.
A violent hunger that rippled across his flesh and seeped from the palms of his hands and into me.
It was all mixed with that steely despair that chipped away a little of my heart every time I looked at him. This man who held himself in reproach as if there was a chance that he wasn’t good and kind.