Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
He wasn’t done with her, because he wasn’t done.
Both hands took a hold of her breasts, knocking hers out of the way. He was staking claim of them as he kept driving up, his grunts louder but consisted more of breath than sound. The heat of his chest seared her back as he pulled her against him tighter, pinched her nipples harder and quickened his pace.
He was close.
And then he was there. His teeth sank into her neck, his breath pounding against her damp skin, his grunt with his final thrust changing into a long, deep groan as he stayed deep, his cock twitching inside her.
She wanted to lower her feet and stand because her mind was still spinning, and she needed to ground herself. To not rely on him holding her up.
But she couldn’t since his cock still speared her deep. And it was one way he could keep control of her. He would pull out when he was ready or when his body forced him to, not a moment before.
Because that was the kind of man he was.
She had wanted to show him she was in control. He turned the tables on her in the end.
She. Had. Failed.
“Baby?”
She closed her eyes for a few seconds, but she knew she’d need to answer because he would only ask again until she did. She knew him and his type too well. “Yeah?”
Releasing one hand from her breast, he dragged his thumb over her mouth, and it got caught on her bottom lip, pulling it down enough so the pad scraped over her bottom teeth. “That’s mine.”
Christ, she should hate that. She should insist he was wrong.
But she didn’t because she didn’t hate it. It gave her a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
He slid it over her breast again, his palm skimming one of her now sensitive nipples. “Mine.”
He spread his fingers across her belly and then slid them lower until he pressed his middle finger against her clit. Another spot now super sensitive. So much so, she jerked when he touched it and whispered, “Mine.”
He kept moving until he found where they were connected and touched her there, too. “Mine,” he said softly, lips to her ear. “And that ass will be mine, too.”
She needed to shake off the hold he had on her. “What’s mine? If you take it all, what’s left for me?”
Without even the slightest hesitation, he said, “Me, baby. You got me. You can have all of me.”
Holy shit, she wasn’t expecting that answer. She also wasn’t expecting all those feelings from twenty years ago to rise back to the surface, as much as she’d been fighting them.
She didn’t expect to fall for him once again.
She failed.
She fucking failed.
A tear slipped out of the corner of her closed eyes. And she let it. She didn’t care if he saw it.
She didn’t care if the whole world saw it.
It was real. And it proved she once again felt something. That she was no longer completely empty inside.
Trip had forced his way in, and she failed to keep him out.
She let him in and, though she struggled not to allow it, he was starting to take root in what was barren soil.
Her Tree of Life was beginning to thrive again.
Now she just needed to keep it from losing any more leaves.
Chapter Fifteen
Trip followed Stella down the steps back into the bar. Something had changed, something had switched.
He wasn’t sure what.
He also wasn’t sure if it would last. But he’d take it. He’d take whatever she’d give him and try to build on it.
As soon as he could, he was getting her moved into his house. He wanted her in his bed every night. He didn’t want to have to come find her here. He had too much on his plate to do that. But he also couldn’t leave her alone.
He couldn’t.
He’d seen the struggle on her face after he’d released her, went into the bathroom to clean up and get rid of the wrap. He didn’t think he misread her.
It was finally hitting her, even though it was a lot later than he’d like. Because it had hit him almost immediately, like a sledgehammer to the chest.
While he didn’t like fighting for what he wanted, for what was his, he also didn’t mind working for it.
Working to build something was one thing. Fighting for it was another.
He was tired.
He had started all of this with too many expectations. He hadn’t planned on Stella being one of them.
He held the storage room’s swinging door open for her and she moved through it and immediately behind the bar.
Cage was still sitting on the stool where they’d left him. Though, now he had an empty shot glass, as well as a filled to the rim pint glass of beer in front of him. Along with an open bag of chips and an empty plastic barrel that used to hold those round cheese puffs.