Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19650 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19650 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 79(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
“Yes, I did.” I manage to unchoke the words from my throat.
“You did? I mean, most security or bouncers or whatever don’t have a sense of humor. Especially a quick, dry one. Sort of made my day. It was a shitty day. Until you.”
It was a shitty day…until you.
“Same,” I grunt, watching her eyes widen. They are the deepest emerald green with a golden center unlike any eyes I’ve ever seen.
“I have a hard time believing that. I mean, you work in paradise surrounded by half-naked bodies.”
A rumble shakes in my chest as she shifts her weight from one foot to the other and my eyes cascade down her tight little frame, landing on the sweet V between her legs.
Making conversation shouldn’t be this fucking hard.
The silence hangs between us until she flutters a hand over her chest in a little cute wave.
“Okay, I just wanted to say thank you—” She turns to go, and my hand darts out, grabbing her wrist.
“Don’t go.”
“You’re confusing. Before, you were funny, and now I feel like you want me to leave you alone then you say ‘don’t go’. I’m not good at this, my friends made me come over—”
I cut her off again, that fucking mouth is driving me crazy and I pull her through the endless space between us, dragging the knuckles of my other hand up and down her cheek.
She smells like heaven and peonies with a cherry on top, and I want to eat her alive.
“I’ll thank your friends later.”
Her nipples harden against my chest as I look down, sizing her up like she’s the prey and I’m the hungry predator.
She starts talking about everything and nothing. How she’s here for her annual three-day vacation with friends from culinary school. How her plane was delayed and she missed dinner. Things about her restaurant and her family. I soak it all up, committing it all to memory when I feel the pressure in the air change.
“Man, that tequila has gone to my head because I never talk like this. Especially to a stranger.”
The world shifts and shudders under my feet when her fingers graze her lips and she giggles. My vision blurs and I want to hear her laugh like that every fucking day. I look down at the nape of her neck. The way it slopes down to her collarbone, her chest.
My hand moves up her arm, she shifts and leans away but I need this right now. Her flesh on my fingers is just the beginning. I want it all. Every part of her will belong to me.
She’s making a little giggling, gasping sound as I hold her steady against me. There’s the distant sound of whoops and yelps, but none of it means anything right now.
“Any of those fucks your boyfriend? Girlfriend? No ring, so…”
“Why do you want to know?” she stammers. “Maybe they are all my boy and girlfriends. It’s a group thing. That’s all the rage right now, right? Poly-whatever.”
“No,” I bark.
Just the thought of her with anyone else, let alone a group, has a rage boiling inside me.
“No? No, what? You don’t know what poly is?”
What’s wrong with me? All I can think about is getting her naked underneath me, driving into her like I’m drilling for oil. I’m raw and losing control, I need to let her go but I don’t think I can…
“I’m going to kiss you,” I rumble, and her mouth drops open.
I lean down, lightning flashes in the sky, raindrops start to fall as thunder rolls, but before I can get my lips on hers, there’s a wild ‘yee haw’ from my left. One of her friends, some guy who has been way overserved, comes up behind her, his hands flick and grab, then the crowd watching screams in unison.
The moment is broken as he races away, jumping in the pool with her bikini top, twirling it above his head.
Fuck. Someone is going to die.
CHAPTER 3
Sophia
* * *
“Wait!” I yell as I’m spun around, a black t-shirt is popped over my head and my hair falls into my face as my body is lifted from the ground.
The mood and the weather changes. Wind whips around, rain is coming down in huge droplets as I feel myself mounted on Chance’s shoulder. He’s moving fast and I’m dizzy from the tequila and the way my head is hanging down over his now bare back.
The music and voices fade as he moves us away, his hand gripping tightly on my nearly-bare ass. Everything is suddenly chaos as I try to breathe and figure out what just happened.
Harold took off my bathing suit top, which seemed to ignite everything around me. The sky flashed, rain started pounding down, thunder and the bubbling rage of the dark man who was about to kiss me culminated with him battling between getting me covered up and killing Harold.