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)
No question, I was going to get lost in it if I wasn’t careful, so I sidestepped him so I could climb into the passenger seat.
Only a hand was suddenly splayed out over my abdomen, tugging me back against the hard planes of his body.
Flames scorched me at the contact.
He pressed his mouth to my ear, and the words he murmured were gravel. “Did you like it? When I took care of you last night, Little Wallflower? Did you like my mouth on you? Because I can promise you that I’ve never liked anything better than you on your knees for me. Best thing I’ve ever felt. That sweet mouth wrapped around my cock.”
Surprise blistered across my flesh, and desire pooled in my belly. A fierce, pounding throb as I struggled to maintain sense and rationale.
Who was I kidding?
I was already lost.
He grunted a satisfied sound as that big hand seared through my shirt and into my skin. A permanent imprint just like he made last night.
Because if I hadn’t known it for all these years, I definitely knew it then.
There would never be any getting over him.
THIRTY-FIVE
DAISY
Cash wound down the mountain through the forest. The road was a weaving two-lane road hugged by trees. Bright, glittering rays of sunlight flashed between the branches and leaves.
It was a quiet, peaceful beauty that enclosed us.
Cash seemed to find no rest in it. His attention continually roamed, taking in both the road and our surroundings, ready if something or someone were to suddenly jump out.
The most unsettling part was it wasn’t irrational. I could almost taste the threat all around.
He and I were mostly silent while constant chatter filtered in from the backseat.
“I bet Nolan is really cool. He likes cars, right, Mr. Cash?” Colin enthused.
“Do you think I’m allowed to feed the baby?” Addy asked over the top of Colin. “I got to feed Eva when she was a baby, and I did a great job, and I even held her, so I think it would be totally fine so Luna’s mom can have a break. Moms get really tired, you know, and I’m always helping my mom.”
“I want to ho-ed a baby.” Eva giggled.
“You are too little,” Addy told her.
Cash peeked over at me.
Both flustered but filled with this reverence I could feel him trying to keep hidden.
“I think we’d better not plan on holding any babies today,” I finally said when I pried myself away from the force of his stare.
It was difficult to do with the man sitting in the driver’s seat. A beast taking up the entire thing. Those muscled arms covered in ink stretched out as he gripped the steering wheel, wearing a plain white tee and jeans and a cap on his head.
The glimmering rays of light striking against him through the window made him look like some glorious, fallen angel.
“We don’t know them, so we can’t go in there making assumptions or asking things that aren’t our place,” I continued, trying to prepare my children.
“It is your place.” Cash’s voice was stony.
I whipped my attention back that way, confusion bounding through me like a new thread being woven into my being.
I was having a hard time making sense of the change. It was as if when Cash had made that commitment to me two days ago, something had been unleashed in him.
Something forbidden unlatched.
He glanced my way before he turned back to the road. “It is your place if your place is with me. They’re my family.”
My heart thundered at my ribs, and I inhaled as deeply as I could, trying not to look too earnestly into what he meant.
At what he was implying.
Cash’s jaw clenched like he couldn’t believe what he said, either, and I forced myself to turn my attention back out the windshield.
A few minutes later, the road opened up as we got to the bottom of the mountain and hit the valley into the small town of Moonlit Ridge.
Cash slowed more as we came upon a nightclub that was in an old church. A club called Kane’s, which was named after the owner whose house we were going to today.
My nerves scattered as Cash made the left and began to follow along a lane on the far side of the club parking lot before it turned into a narrow drive bracketed by lush, leafy trees. We wound through until we hit a big clearing.
A two-story white house was in the distance. A rambling lawn fronted it, and more shade trees hedged it in protection.
My stomach tightened when I saw a bunch of cars parked in the circular drive out front.
A discord of my children’s voices began to resonate from the back.
“Is this it? Cool house, Mr. Cash!” Colin peeped. “I bet it’s got stairs because the roof is really tall. Did you know I had stairs at my old house? But I like your house the best so that’s okay if it doesn’t have any.”