Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
The jacket wasn’t a diamond bracelet or a ruby necklace. It wasn’t some expensive purse picked blindly just because it was expensive. It wasn’t a new laptop I didn’t need because my old one was only a year old.
These were things I needed. Things that he knew I needed. Things to keep me warm because that mattered to him.
They were two of the most thoughtful gifts I’d ever been given.
“What’s this big hug for, huh?” he asked against my cheek as his arms went around the middle of my back, holding me steady on his lap as he rocked back to rest on his heels like we’d been in this position a hundred times before. “Are you getting upset?”
There were tears in my eyes, tears that snuck onto his neck and the collar of his sweater. “I’m getting upset because you’re so nice. It’s your fault.”
He hugged me a little tighter. “It’s my fault?”
“Yes.” I pulled back a little, took in the heavy lines of his bone structure, his brows, that adorable chin, and I kissed him.
Not like before, when they’d been pecks that had fed my soul with their sweetness, but really did it.
Rhodes groaned as he kissed me back—our first real-real fucking kiss. His lips were as soft and perfect as I remembered, and I doubted there was a mouth in the world better than his. Tilting his head to the side, Rhodes kissed me slowly, softly. Still so sweetly. He took his time, his warm lips plucking at my bottom one, sucking the tip of my tongue and starting all over again, the palms of his hands going up and down my back, holding me to him and touching me all at the same time.
There was no awkwardness. No hesitation. His hands mapped my body like they already knew it.
We kissed and kissed, and that big palm slipped up the back of my sweater, fingers stretched wide, touching everything possible. So I did the same, sneaking my hand up under his side, palming the solid mass of muscles there and the skin over his ribs, earning a soft groan that I swallowed because I sure as hell didn’t want to stop kissing him again any time soon.
Or ever, if I had the choice.
I knew Rhodes cared about me like I knew the sky was blue, and some part of me thought he might be at least a little in love with me right back. He was affectionate in his own way. He taught me how to do things. He went out of his way to spend time with me. He never hid that he cared about me in front of other people. He supported me. He worried about me.
If that wasn’t love, then I could still easily settle for all that the rest of my life.
But for now, today, in this room, stroking his warm skin, all those hard muscles . . . with two of the most practical and sweet gifts I could have ever asked for . . . I wasn’t going to worry about more than what I had then. Which was more than I’d ever had.
He wasn’t my ex. This man wouldn’t lead me on or use me. He liked having me around, because he liked me.
And he just made me happy. His subtle smiles. His touches. Even his bossy britches voice. It all meant the world to me.
He made me happy. And I had decided I was ready. More than ready.
And I whispered those exact words to him as that callused palm snuck so deeply under my sweater his fingertips brushed that tender spot right between my shoulders.
Rhodes growled, tilting me back in his lap just enough so he could look right into my eyes as he said, with that ferociously serious expression from the first night I’d walked into his life, “You have no idea.”
Then he kissed me again, slow and deep and sweet. Not asking me if I was sure. Not hesitating. Showing me again that he trusted what I felt and what I wanted.
And I had no idea that kiss was going to be the last of the sweetness.
“Can I see you?” he asked, all husky and ready.
I glided my hand as far up his back as I could possibly reach, his skin smooth. “You can do more than that.”
His growl was deep in his throat as his other hand went to the bottom of my top, and he pulled it over my head. Those lips went straight from my mouth to my neck, leaving open-mouth kisses and nips there that had me instantly rolling my hips against his.
Against his hard, hard dick.
I’d felt . . . traces of it before, all sleepy or semi-sleepy in his jeans and sweatpants when he would give me a hug, but never . . . never like this. Ready. Waiting. Excited and fully awake.