Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 52100 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52100 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 261(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Business partner or not, he needed to back the fuck off. He was trying to buy Shea’s affection with his piles of money, and I wasn’t going to just stand back and let it happen.
Shea gave him an apologetic look. “I’ll catch up with you another time, okay?”
Keller nodded, not even looking at me again, before walking away. I pulled Shea closer, her chest against mine and her head against my shoulder.
When the song ended, the DJ announced that Avon was going to throw her bouquet before she and Grady left to spend their wedding night at a secluded cabin about an hour from the Beard. They were flying to Hawaii tomorrow for a weeklong honeymoon.
Once all the single women had lined up, Avon tossed her bouquet, which Carmen lunged for. Shea met my eyes and shrugged.
After we said our goodbyes to Grady and Avon, I leaned in and spoke in Shea’s ear.
“Come back to my room with me.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“Completely. There’s so much I wish I could promise you that I can’t...” I cupped her cheek in my hand. “But tonight I can be all yours if that’s what you want.”
She nodded. “I do. But how about my place instead?”
My body heated in response to her suggestion, hunger and certainty swirling in her eyes as they locked onto mine. Would one night satisfy the ache I felt for her or intensify it?
I didn’t want to waste another minute seeking the answer to that question. We said a few more quick goodbyes and were soon in my truck on the way to her house.
“Are you nervous?” she asked me.
“I wouldn’t call it nervous... Excited, I guess. What about you?”
“Both.”
I put a hand on her knee. “You’ve got nothing to be nervous about.”
“How many women have you been with?”
I hesitated, hoping my answer wouldn’t change her view of me. “Two.”
“Oh wow. That makes me feel a lot better.”
I laughed lightly. “You thought I was a manwhore?”
“Well, that’s what I get for assuming...I just thought you’d say a much higher number.”
“What’s your number?”
“It’s, uh...it’s three.”
“All of them damn lucky,” I said.
I parked in her driveway, which in the Beard was like a neon sign announcing we were spending the night together.
Shea gave me a questioning look and I said, “Let ’em talk.”
Her eyes shone with happiness when I met her on the passenger side of the truck and took her hand. We walked around to the side entry door and she took out a key ring, unlocking the door.
As soon as we stepped inside, she closed the door and shoved something from the kitchen counter into the sink.
“Try not to notice the laund”
I cut her off by pulling her into my arms and kissing her. Finally, we were alone. We’d never truly been alone. Not at the cabin when everyone else was inside eating, and definitely not at the reception when we’d been surrounded by people.
But now, at last, I could kiss her the way I wanted to. She dropped her bag to the ground and kissed me back, wrapping her arms around my neck.
We kissed each other in front of her kitchen sink until we were both breathless. She tugged my dress shirt out of my pants and started unbuttoning it, my tie long gone already.
“Can I unzip this?” I asked, my fingers pausing on the zipper of her gown.
“Um, I actually have a shapewear situation happening. Can we go into the bedroom?”
“Yeah, of course.”
I wasn’t sure what a shapewear situation was, and I didn’t ask. I undressed down to my boxers as Shea went into her walk-in closet and when she came back out, she was only wearing a lacy white bra and panties, her expression shy and lusty at the same time.
“Holy fuck,” I said as I took in her nearly naked body. “You’re so sexy.”
She got in bed and I followed, leaning on an elbow as I kissed her neck and chest, my hand on her thigh. It had been so long since a woman had touched me as tenderly as she did; my body froze at first and then heated all over.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” she said softly. “You know I had a hard-core crush on you in high school, right?”
My eyes widened in shock. “You did?”
“Me and half the female student population at Sven’s Beard High School, Holt,” she said with a warm smile.
“I wish I’d known.”
“My brother would have literally murdered you.”
I arched a brow. “He’s still contemplating it.”
She slid a hand inside my boxers and I groaned.
“I’ll try my best to make it worth dying for,” she quipped.
I took her by the wrist and then captured her other one in my free hand, pinning them above her head. She inhaled sharply, her chest rising and falling as she breathed.
“I get you first,” I said, kissing her.