Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 122578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
He suddenly locked his arm around my waist, tugging me against the hard planes of his body. With his free hand, he took me by the jaw. “I will do whatever it takes to ensure he dies at my hands. To ensure that Evelyn is safe. To ensure that anyone associated with me is safe. To ensure that you are safe. I promise you.”
This.
This was why he was so cut off. Refusing affection or love or any semblance of hope.
He didn’t think he had any.
He thought he would only bring misery to those around him.
I couldn’t tell which of our hearts were beating so loud, this manic pounding that ricocheted through the room.
Energy buzzed. Loud in my ears and banging at my heart.
Wrapping me in a fiery sheet that made me feel like I was burning up.
Caleb Greyson an inferno set on devouring everything in his path.
He dipped his mouth down to my ear, his breath a shallow grate when he drew out, “This is your chance to go, Paisley. Run before it’s too late.”
Blood sloshed through my veins, and my fingers curled in his shirt. “I’m not going anywhere.”
TWENTY-NINE
CALEB
Need pounded through my bloodstream, but in the middle of it was something so much more powerful. Something that fucking terrified me.
But still, I couldn’t let go where I had her plastered against me.
Inhaling her like she was mine to breathe.
Open fields and cotton candy.
I could no longer take it.
This need that stalked me. Itching to taste her mouth. To feel the flutter of her fingertips across my skin.
Bile still thickened my throat, the revulsion and loathing so intense I felt it scar my flesh.
That fucking letter sitting open, taunting me with the truth that the monster was out there.
Watching.
Lying in wait.
Right under my fucking nose when I’d been in the city, thinking I had been sniffing out the bastard when he’d been the one watching me.
It made my skin crawl.
Problem was, I wanted to crawl right into Paisley because of it.
I knew better. Knew better than giving in. Knew better than dragging her into my debased world that would only hurt her in the end.
But her breaths were short and shallow, her tits heaving with each desperate pant, her warmth as strong as the desire she’d lit.
I brushed my thumb over the apple of her cheek. “Reckless Angel.”
Mossy eyes sparked, strikes of emerald in the endless night.
It was me who was loaded with the recklessness that was this girl.
Because I had no control left. Not when it came to her.
“You’re driving me to insanity, Paisley Dae.”
“I think you already have me there, Caleb.”
My mouth watered with her confession, and I spun her and bent her over my desk.
That fucking letter was a foot to the right of her.
Taunting me with what it meant.
The insanity flared, the desperation to unleash this hostile energy.
To replace it with something else.
She gasped a shocked sound, like she hadn’t known what would happen when she pushed me against this razor-sharp edge.
When I no longer possessed any faculties except for this desire that drove everything else.
I leaned over her, plastering myself to her back, my hands gliding down her bare arms. She trembled below my touch. I threaded my fingers through hers. “This will be a mistake.”
“I don’t care.” Her breath was a wisp of need.
My swollen cock ached at her lush, full ass.
She had on another pair of cut-off shorts, the tightest fucking pink tank wrapping her like a dream.
Lust clouded my sensibilities.
Oxygen raked from my lungs in haggard pants as I buried my nose in the fall of her hair.
Sweet sin and reckless intentions.
I slipped my hand around her waist, and my palm flattened over her quivering belly. I pulled her harder to my dick that raged against the zipper of my pants. My mouth moved to the soft shell of her ear, uncontained words rumbling out. “Tell me you don’t want this.”
I couldn’t tell if it was a demand or a plea.
I twisted the fall of her hair around my hand and pulled it to the side to expose the delicious slope of her neck. Angling down, I pressed my lips to the soft flesh and inhaled, like I could suck all her goodness into my soul. “Tell me.”
Desire escaped her on a whimper. “That would be as big of a lie as you saying you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”
The words whispered from her mouth in a torrent of greed.
My heart fisted at her accusation, and I fought against the feeling that kept trying to rise to the surface.
I wanted to refute what she’d said. Remind her that she didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about.
She didn’t know me.
Had no idea what I was capable of or what I’d done.
But finding that note had stirred my guts into mayhem, and the girl had stirred my body and mind into lawlessness. It was a dangerous concoction because the only thing my lips were doing were whispering over the flesh of her neck, tongue flicking out to taste the goosebumps that scattered over her nape.