Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 138274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
As his blood pounded, he wanted to know what she tasted like. What her naked skin felt like against his own as he pierced her vein and took her inside of him.
“Just so we’re clear, I’m okay with getting burned a little.” She put her hands on his jacket, right over his pecs. “I’m feeling pretty hot right now, for example.”
She was looking pretty fucking hot right now, too. Especially as her lips parted like in her mind, they were already kissing.
Don’t do it, Nate thought. You’re going to lose worse this time.
Good advice.
Too bad he couldn’t take it.
Reaching out, he slipped his hand around the warm nape of her neck. Then he leaned down and hovered his mouth right above Nalla’s.
“Are you sure,” he whispered.
As she curled up grips on his jacket, she rose onto her toes, and she was the one who closed the distance—
Oh, fuck.
Nalla tasted like fresh mint and too-good female, her lips soft under his own—and getting softer as he put more pressure into the slow exploration. God, she smelled amazing, the scent of her arousal burrowing into his brain. All kinds of plans immediately struck him: If they could go back to his place, they could get the kind of privacy that guaranteed—
Nate pulled back abruptly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Well, you do burn me,” she said in a husky voice. “But it feels so good.”
Smoothing a hand over the flyaways around her face, he fucking agreed. He also needed her like she was the last female in the world.
Then again, she was the only one he wanted, so that checked out.
Except he had to think about the future. After all, he was leaving the planet soon. So starting this with her? Was beyond unfair.
“Nalla…”
Her brows pulled together. “Okay, there’s too much regret in the way you say my name like that.”
“It’s not… a good time. For me.”
For a second, she seemed like she was poised to make a joke, a forced smile tilting her mouth. But then she obviously couldn’t follow through with it, and instead took a step back from him, her hands releasing the folds of black leather she’d gripped so tightly.
“Okay.” She shrugged. “If I’m going to beg, it’s because we’re both naked and enjoying ourselves. And that’s not what’s happening here, is it.”
“Goddamn it,” he muttered.
Pacing away from her, he stalked around the dying fire—and wasn’t that really a ball-twister of a commentary on things. When something hit his steel-toed boot, he cursed and bent over to pick up his lighter fluid container.
He paused to read the back label. Well, would ya look at them warnings…
“Stand back,” he growled.
Instead of waiting for her to move, he positioned himself in front of her and then threw the fire starter into the pile.
Nalla immediately cursed. “I don’t think that was a great idea—”
The explosion hit him harder than he’d expected, the blast of heat blowing him backwards so that he took Nalla with him down to the ground. As they landed in the snow, he flipped over and covered her so that she was protected from the fireball, and at least the flare was a short-timer, which was good.
Unfortunately, his clothes didn’t want to leave the party, and the agony was blinding.
As his leather jacket ignited, he flopped over and started rolling in the snow. Nalla was right on it, shoveling handfuls onto him, packing him with more and more until things were extinguished and the pain backed off a little.
As the rush to put him out passed, he lay wherever the hell he’d ended up, panting, head swimming, nose full of the stink of his own burned skin.
Man, he hated barbecue. Especially when he was on the menu.
Nalla’s worried face appeared above his own. “Are you okay?”
Great, he thought. Two nights in a row.
“I’m always okay. Just—”
“Give you a minute,” she finished hoarsely. “Yeah, I’ve been through this before with you, remember.”
With a series of shrugs, she got out of her parka—
“No, no—” He batted a lame hand. “You need to stay warm—”
“Shut up.” She put her hand over his babbling mouth. “Just because you don’t stay dead doesn’t mean you’re not suffering. I’m taking you back to the house and we’re going—”
“I’m not going to Luchas House.”
As she stared down at him, the female was looking like she was in charge. So it was not entirely surprising when she announced in a voice that could have gotten steel I-beams on their feet and marching to her orders:
“Yes, you are.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Nalla was done with the arguing. The only thing Nate had more of than willpower was stupidity. The good news? He was too physically compromised to do much about anything. The bad news? Trying to fit him into her parka would be like stuffing a boulder into a backpack. So she put her Patagonia back on, got down beside him, and pushed her arms behind both of his knees and just below his shoulder blades—