Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
“Do you know how many women I’ve said that to?” He doesn’t give me time to reply. “None. No one but you. This isn’t about a deal or a company. This is about you and me and us. How many men have you said that to?”
“None. Just you. You know that. I told you my history.”
“I wanted to hear it again.” His hand slides under my shirt, settling warmly on my belly. “I do want to own you, Carrie. I can’t seem to stop myself from wanting to own you.”
“You’ll never own me, Reid, but as you said to me, you can try.”
His lips, those sexy lips, quirk on the sides. “And we’ll enjoy trying, now won’t we?” His hand slips under the back of my sweats. “Let me show you how much.”
I’m instantly aware of what Reid quickly discovers; I didn’t actually put on underwear. He breathes out heavily with the realization that his hand meets no resistance. “God, woman,” he says cupping my face, “you make me crazy.” His lips touch mine, his tongue stroking deeply, even as his fingers stroke a line down the wet seam of my body, and I moan with the sensations rippling through me. He answers that moan by deepening the kiss, and his fingers are doing this crazy wonderful thing to my clit and then they’re inside me and his thumb is in just the right spot. I’m lost in the sensations rolling through me, and almost embarrassed by how fast I’m headed to that sweet, sweet escape. So very fast that I tear my mouth from Reid’s and press my face to his chest, my fingers curling around his T-shirt as I fight what is too far gone to be stopped.
“Reid, I’m—I’m—” I tumble over into bliss and my entire body quakes. It comes over me hard and fast, and then it’s over and I’m panting. “That was—”
Reid cups my face and forces my gaze to this. “So damn sexy.” He kisses me again. “And for just a few minutes, I did own you.”
“Was it that long? I think you owned me pretty quickly.”
“I like that you were that turned on,” he promises. “I love it.”
Love.
That word.
It taunts me despite the context. Could I fall in love with this man? Am I headed there?
He lies back on the sand and pulls me close. For long minutes we just lie there, listening to the ocean, breathing together until he flexes fingers on my back and murmurs, “Tell me something I don’t know about you.”
I smile without looking at him. “I can have an orgasm in about sixty seconds flat if you’re the one giving it to me.”
He gives a low, deep sexy laugh and kisses my forehead. “I said something I don’t know.”
I think of my father, and what I still don’t know, and how much I want to push him to tell me, but I don’t want to lose this time with Reid. He’s relaxed, and I don’t know if he’s often in this kind of casual way with anyone. “My favorite food is macaroni and cheese and I could take you to all the best places in New York City to get it.”
“It’s a date,” he says. “How many places?”
“Half a dozen.”
“Even better,” he says. “My favorite food is a hamburger and I can take you to all the best places. Another half dozen.”
“It’s a date,” I mimic his reply.
“Where in the world have you traveled?” he asks next.
“Asia and inside the United States,” I say, aware of Reid really trying to get to know me, as I want to know him. “Nowhere else.”
He glances down at me. “Your family had money. How is that even possible?”
“After my mom left, my father did trips for business and that’s all. What about you?”
“All over the place,” he says. “That you have not—we have to fix that.”
“We?” I ask, leaning up to look at him.
“Yes, we. Let’s go to Italy to celebrate your CEO promotion when it happens. You like pasta, I assume since you love macaroni and cheese. You’ll get lots of great pasta there.”
Italy. He wants me to go to Italy with him. My stomach twists a little with just how confusing and complicated this thing with us is getting. “Reid—”
“Don’t overthink it, Carrie,” he says. “Just live in the moment. Just say yes.”
Live in the moment, only Italy months from now isn’t in the moment. Just say yes. He makes it seem so simple. Is it? “If I even become CEO,” I say.
“You will,” he assures me. “Are you still going to sell your apartment?”
I sit up with a sudden twist in my belly, pulling my knees to my chest. “I want to sell it.”
Reid sits up and moves to sit in front of me, his hand settling on my knees, those blue eyes probing. “Why?”