Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
“Not me, no. I meant you.” I still worry he sees me as some silly, lovesick girl who gave up her hymen for less than a promise. And why should he settle when there are so many amazing, confident women out there? “Do you want other people?”
“No, I want you. I haven’t had a monogamous relationship—hell, any relationship at all—since I was fifteen and spent my sophomore year in high school with Ethan’s mom.”
“B-but you’ve had sex since then.”
“A lot of it, yeah. That’s how I know what I’m feeling is more. The weeks you were in my house, I woke up every day dying to see you. You made me smile when you did little things like fix pancakes with mouse ears. You made me laugh when you told those awful jokes you’d heard on the radio. You made me harder than hell when you wore those skin-hugging stretchy pants and did yoga in my living room. Just by being there, you made me look forward to life. Do you know how long it’s been since I felt anything like that? Years. Decades. It’s as if you breathed fresh air into my existence, Havana.”
“Really?” He actually wants me for me?
“Yeah. And that morning, when you kissed me, there was no way I couldn’t kiss you back. That’s how else I knew you were special. Just kissing you made me feel way more than an erection. It might sound corny, but I felt you with my heart.”
It doesn’t sound corny because, for me, it was the same. “Kissing you made me feel truly alive for the first time.”
“My hope for the future was dead until you. I got into dangerous shit because I really thought I’d spend the rest of my life alone.”
“I couldn’t even see a future with anyone. Just college and vet school. Until you, that’s all I ever wanted.”
Ransom rolls me flat to my back, covers my body with his, and presses a fierce kiss to my lips. Automatically, I spread my legs for him. He slides inside me and nuzzles his face against my neck, stroking me slowly. It doesn’t take long for him to rev me up. As if I’m attuned to his body, as if every nerve ending is hypersensitive, his possession leads to an inevitable free fall into ecstasy.
Just before I tumble over, he cups my face, teeth bared, stare drilling me with the same intensity as his body. “I’m going to make this right for you. For us. I promise.”
“Yes…” I believe him.
“I’m going to marry you and fill the house with our babies.”
The idea of being pregnant by this man who’s only whispered about love in the dark should terrify me. Instead, I’m excited. I’m thrilled with our future. No matter what happens, I’ll figure out how to go to college. How to excel at vet school. But if I have this man and our children, too, I’ll have everything.
“Yes!” It’s the last thing I scream as I claw my nails into his back, earning me a growl of purely male pleasure, before we both give over to the combustive need neither of us can deny.
Ransom
Just before five a.m., I sneak away from Havana, hopefully for the last time. Yeah, I leave her a vague note telling her that I’m getting a few things but to stay put because I’ll be back. I hate to leave as much as I hate to lie to her, but I’ve had it.
This shit ends today.
I find her keys in the kitchen. The kitten I spotted earlier sees me and makes another beeline under the sofa. I refill her water dish and make a mental note to tell Ethan to bring some kitten food before I take Havana’s keys and the instructions my son scribbled on a piece of paper with the various access codes, then I’m flying down the road, through the last of the night.
I don’t give a shit what time it is or where my youngest brother is. I dial him.
“What’s wrong?” He sounds half awake. “Why the fuck are you calling again so soon?”
We try to avoid contact so we don’t blow our covers, but this can’t wait. “I need out. Now.”
“What?” Ridge’s shout doesn’t sound sleepy anymore.
“You heard me.”
“Are you fucking serious? I’ve been working this shit for too long for you to just bail.”
“Look, I hoped we’d be done.” And until tonight, I hadn’t dared to believe that Havana wanted a future with me. “But I’ve got to end my part in this fucking charade. I’m in love.” If anything happened to her because of this shit, I wouldn’t make it.
“You?” He sounds more than slightly skeptical.
That’s no surprise. I’ve been saying for almost two decades that I’d never settle down, never have more kids, and never let another woman have that much power in my life. Ethan’s mom, Lydia, was enough.