Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
No more pitching between want and rejection.
No more stolen touches and shameful hands.
Because I wouldn’t be a sin.
Wouldn’t be something he regretted.
“Goodnight, Milo.”
I turned in the direction of my room, fighting the burn of tears. I needed to hold on to them at least until I made it to the safety inside.
He might know how far I’d fallen, but he didn’t need to know the pain of landing there.
I’d almost made it to the door when a flurry of footfalls echoed behind me. He looped a massive arm around my waist and yanked me against the hard planes of his body.
His voice was even harder as he rushed the words at my ear, “You think I don’t feel this, Tessa? You think I don’t know it’s real? But I’m terrified of letting you down. Of failing. Of destroying something good.”
“I’m not afraid, Milo. You’re worth the risk,” I rasped through the haze. “What you have to ask yourself is if I am. Am I worth the risk?”
A growl ripped from his chest, and he had me spun and pressed to the wall before my senses could catch up.
Electricity cracked.
A whip in the air.
Amber eyes had turned molten.
Lava.
Scorching a fiery path as they seared me through.
“Am I?” I demanded. He didn’t need to tell me he loved me back, but I at least needed this.
A promise that this was more.
That I was more.
My shoulders were pinned to the wall, but my back heaved forward, my body making a play to meet with his.
Milo stared at me, his breaths ragged, that severe brow slashing downward in intensity. His lips plush and his jaw hard and his heart hammering.
“You’re worth it, Tessa. You’re worth everything.” He swept me off my feet and into his massive arms. “Every. Fucking. Thing.”
I lifted my chin. “Then prove it.”
He carried me through the cabin and directly to his room, all hulking power and steely determination.
He tossed me onto his bed, and I bounced against the mattress.
A giggle got free. I didn’t know if I wanted to weep or let go of a shout of victory.
Loving Milo Hendricks for the win.
“What are you laughing at, Little Dove?” It almost sounded like a warning as he gazed down at me where he stood towering at the side of the bed.
He was looking at me the way I’d imagined he would do in my dreams.
In this way that made me feel like he was both going to ravage me and keep me.
Ruin me and cherish me.
All bristly fierceness and gentle adoration.
I felt it glow and warm and seep down to my bones.
“That I can’t wait until you wreck me.”
“You want me to break you, Tessa?”
Every glorious muscle in his giant body flexed.
I writhed on his mattress, my breaths shallow, the words a plea, because for the love of all things holy, I needed him, and I needed him now. “I think you already have.”
“Think it’s safe to say it’s the other way around.”
“No, Milo, I don’t want to break you. I want to show you everything you deserve.”
“And what do you want in return?” His voice turned all sexy and raspy, and God, this man did things to me that shouldn’t be possible.
Things I should probably be terrified of because I was completely laying myself bare.
Offering it all. But we were long since passed caution.
I’d tossed it to the wind the day I’d agreed to stay here with him.
“Well, I’m thinking right about now that I want you to touch me.”
I sent him a teasing grin, though the need was verified.
A dizzying desire streaked through my body, and I was tingling just looking at him.
A heavy breath escaped him, and his tongue swept over his plush, decadent lips. “Why’s it feel so good with you? Why’s it feel so right?”
“Maybe because we’re right where we belong, right now, in this moment.” The words were thin wisps that rushed from my lips. “What if we were meant to be here, Milo? What if the heartbreak and loss we’ve both suffered warped us into a new shape? What if it bent us so we had no choice but to turn a different direction? A place where it was impossible for us not to meet? What if we were supposed to become something brand new together?”
His fingers tickled along the outside of my calf, just above the strap of my red heel.
An anxious breath sighed from my lips.
“And what if I ruin you, Little Dove?”
My heart ravaged my chest, every beat chaos, my spirit whipping through the room in a bid to meet with his.
“I already told you that you were worth the risk.”
A compulsion wound around us.
Enveloping.
Enshrouding.
Or maybe it was cocooning.
Weaving a safe place.
This bond of protection that we could only find in one another.
I eased up to sitting, and I stared up at him as my fingers moved to his belt, my voice a low promise as I worked the buckle free. “I’ll stand by you, Milo. I’ll stand by this gentle man who’s so intimidatingly fierce. A man who will do anything to save his family. A man who is willing to fight. But one who also has the softest spirit. A man who adores his children. A man who looks at me like I might be a treasure.”