Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 97287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Even though I know it’s good she’s feeling optimistic about the future, that there are possibilities, it bothers me that I’m not in any of those scenarios.
“I think that’s smart,” I tell her. “To know you’ll come back, sooner rather than later.” I clear my throat. “So you don’t see yourself working for royals forever?”
“Nah,” she says. “It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed my jobs. I enjoy being with kids. But now everything seems turned on its head. The life plan I thought I had, however feeble it was—I feel like there’s been a major course correction. Which is scary, but…I’m realizing how important home is. I don’t want to realize it too late.”
“Makes sense.”
“And you?” she asks.
“Me, what? My plan?”
“Could you see yourself living somewhere like this?”
“Somewhere like this? Or this place in particular?”
What exactly are you asking me, Laila?
“Okay. Somewhere like this.”
Hmmm. Can’t help but feel a little disappointed that she wasn’t talking about this town. Guess I was getting ahead of myself.
“It depends,” I say. “Am I here alone? Am I here with someone special? Am I here because I’m hoping to catch the eye of a pretty blond girl with the world’s loudest laugh?”
She nearly laughs at that but clamps her lips shut. “Right,” she eventually says.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I never thought about it until now.”
“Because you’re a city boy through and through.”
“That’s true. I have been. But we don’t always remain the same through life, do we? And since I started working for Magnus, I’ve actually gotten used to living in the middle of nowhere. I’ve come to peace with it. In fact I think it actually brings me peace, believe it or not. And if you had told me that last year, I would have said you were crazy.”
Laila is actually looking at me like I’m crazy right now. “Call me shocked.”
I shrug. “I don’t know what to say. I think…” I look around, taking in the amazing scenery, feeling like I’m actually one with the wilderness. Maybe I have some secret Norwegian blood in me after all. “I think I could thrive in a place like this. As long as I could thrive with someone.”
I want to be direct. I usually am. But with Laila it can be so hard to know where you stand, and the last thing I want is to seem like I’m coming on too strong, especially on a walk back from her grandmother’s funeral.
But when we finally get to the house, faces red from the cold, all worries about coming on too strong are quickly pushed aside. Laila grabs my hand and takes me up the narrow, steep steps to her bedroom, pulling me inside.
I’m already hard just from the anticipation of sex. Last night was amazing, but I never assumed it would happen again. I thought Laila would have chalked it up to a mistake, a bad idea, and it would have been put past us. But now…
“James,” she says as she puts a hand behind my back and pulls me against her. There’s desperation in her voice, the way her jaw tenses as her hands slip down over my cock, giving me a hard squeeze through my pants that makes me moan.
“I want you,” she says, her eyes searching mine.
She wants to escape from everything. She wants to forget. She wants to feel something other than the deepest and darkest pain.
I will do everything I can to help. I want to forget too. I want to pretend that our past never happened and there’s only our future.
Even though it scares the fuck out of me.
I grab her face and kiss her hard and then bring a hand down to the hem of her dress and pull it up while sliding my fingers down the waistband of her leggings and underwear.
Damn, she’s soaked.
I let my fingers explore, and it brings out a moan from her mouth. It’s as if she’s starving for me. When my fingers slip between her cunt and her hips buck, I let my middle finger slip inside her tightness and begin to fuck her slowly with it, taking my time. I know that what’s happening between us here is only meant to be here. I know this, I feel it…she doesn’t even have to say it. And so I want to savor this, every moment that my fingers touch her body, every moment that I feel her, touch her, because I know that we might not have another chance after this.
“James,” she says in a throaty whisper and her head goes back. I kiss her neck, slipping another finger inside her as we both stand at the foot of the bed. She feels like she’s offering herself to me, and I know I have to be careful in how I handle her. Not in a physical way—she likes it rough and she can be pretty wild herself—but emotionally. She has been letting me in bit by bit, like the leaves of a rosebud opening to the sunshine, as if I don’t bring rain. But maybe this time I don’t have to be what ruins her. Maybe I won’t make a mistake this time. Maybe I won’t get cold feet and run if she lets me into her heart again.