Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 79382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
I didn't have to turn to know who it was, but I turned anyway to find Renny standing there- way too close.
His light eyes were penetrating and unreadable as he looked at me for a long minute.
It happened so fast, too fast for me to think let alone react.
One hand moved out and landed in the center of my lower back, plastering my front against his, making my breath rush out of me as my neck craned up to look at him. His other hand went behind my neck, holding me there hard.
Then his lips crashed down on mine.
There was no other way, not for all the weeks of unsatisfied desire, of snapping at each other, of flirting.
It was a crash.
There would be damage in the wake.
But suddenly, I couldn't find the will to care about the consequences as my backpack fell from my hand and landed with a thump as my arms went up- one grabbing his bicep, the other digging into the shirt over his chest.
And I melted into him.
Feeling it, his head slanted, deepening the kiss until I swore I felt it everywhere, until all there was in the world was us and that moment, until my lips felt tingly and my head felt light. Until I let out a low whimper and he took the opportunity for his tongue to move forward and thrust inside my mouth to claim mine. His body curled forward, making me arch backward slightly to keep contact, leaving me fully at his mercy because if he wasn't holding me, I'd have fallen backward.
He made a low, rumbling noise in his chest that shot toward my core, making a rush of wetness meet my panties as my hips pressed into his, feeling his hard cock against my belly.
Just when the urge to rub myself against him to ease the ache growing inside became almost overwhelming, his lips released mine and he let me go back onto my own feet fully, his forehead pressing into mine.
"You're such a fucking coward," he said, voice low but full of depth.
Then, just as suddenly as it started, his arms released me, he turned, and he was gone before I could even think through the fog of desire in my brain.
I slumped backward, leaning against the wall, taking a slow, deep breath.
To be frank, I'd been kissed plenty in my life. They had ranged from absolutely no spark to fireworks. But kissing Renny, yeah, it was more like a goddamn explosion.
I should have known as much. Really, the chemistry had been strong from first introductions, even with blood in his teeth from his fight with Duke, even with an eye that was quickly blackening, even then I had felt it. It had done nothing but get stronger the longer I was around him, the more impressed I became by him, the more worn down I got from his charm.
It would have been laughable that after all that the kiss was underwhelming.
But it wasn't.
It was, well, the kind of kiss you wait a lifetime for. And I wasn't even a romantic like that. It was just the fact. He grabbed me all alpha-style and kissed me silly.
Then as if that wasn't bad enough, he had gone ahead and dropped that line and stormed off.
The worst part, though, was that he was right. I was a coward. I was running away because I knew whatever was happening between me and Renny was something epic, something big. The thing was, I wasn't prepared for that. The main reason being that I knew what it would be; it would be crazy and unpredictable and messy.
I just wasn't ready for that.
It was easier to leave.
Cowardly? Absolutely.
But smart? Yes. At least I thought so.
Really, it was the only option.
So why there was a wobbly, uncertain feeling in my stomach as I picked up my backpack and made my way to the gates to where my car was parked on the street, yeah, I was pretending that was just the feeling of leaving a job half-finished and not the disappointment of a great opportunity lost.
SIX
Mina
"You're breathing on me," L growled, frustrated.
He wasn't wrong. I had been hovering over his shoulder as he typed up some more information he had dug up about the guys that were caught breaking into the gym three days before.
I couldn't claim he was exactly tickled to be working with me, because that would be an outright lie. I was pretty sure he almost wanted to slap me when I drank the rest of the coffee without immediately putting on a new pot. Apparently, in his workspace, there were rules. But since he was about as communicative as Wolf was on a bad day, those rules I learned mainly through trial and error.
For instance, I wasn't allowed to touch his laptop.