Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Yeah, those things are definitely a factor.” And, you know, the possible fifty totes full of drugs stashed at many different locations throughout the state. A possible drug bust. A prison sentence. No big deal. Not nightmare fuel or anything.
“If it helps at all, this area of Navesink Bank is safe. If you’re feeling weird about living alone.”
I hadn’t been. It had actually been one of the things I’d been excited about. No noisy neighbors. No intrusive roommates. Just me.
But now that he brought it up, I had a shiny new thing to worry about.
Because not only were those units full of drugs, someone knew that. Someone had taken the whole stash from one of them.
If they happened to know who I was, would they, I don’t know, come to my house? Demand access to the other units? Hurt me?
“Hey, you alright?” Santo asked, his voice softer than usual.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, taking a deep breath, but it made my chest shake.
“Hey, it’s gonna be alright,” he said, coming fully into the kitchen, nearly tripping over some peeled-back linoleum, but it didn’t slow him down.
I was in his arms within a moment, my face pressed into the crook of his neck, his strong arms wrapping me up tight. Just like I’d been longing for.
I expected the way I melted into him, how my arms went desperately around him. I hadn’t anticipated the way my eyes would flood with tears.
It just felt so good to be seen, held, understood. Even though he couldn’t actually understand when there was so much I couldn’t tell him.
“There you go,” he said, feeling the tension leaving my body. His hands slid up and down my back. It was meant to be comforting, but it wasn’t long before his chaste touch was making little sparks of desire course across my skin.
Santo cleared his throat a bit. “If you just want a friend and comfort, we’re going to need to let go now.”
Did I want friendship and comfort?
Yes.
More than almost anything else.
Almost.
Instead of doing the smart thing—letting go and nurturing a connection I so desperately needed—I let my hands slip from around his neck to go up the sides, then frame his gorgeous face.
Santo’s warm eyes were on me as I went up on my tippy toes so I could press my lips to his.
Just the first brush had little sparks coursing through me, catching fire, spreading.
By the time Santo’s hand went to the back of my neck, fingers almost crushing as his lips slanted over mine again and again, desire was a coiled spring in my core; it twisted tighter with each passing second.
Santo’s teeth nipped my lower lip, and there was no stopping the needy moan that escaped me.
He made that delicious rumbling sound in response, his hands gliding down my back to sink into my ass. Fingers sinking in, he dragged me more fully against him, making me achingly aware of his desire.
We were moving then, Santo walking backward through my home, deftly sidestepping all the various junk lying around until he felt the couch behind him and lowered himself down. He pulled me with him until my legs were on the sides of his, and his hands were dragging me down to straddle him.
I’d never been more thankful that I preferred to wear dresses than I was right when I dropped my hips down onto his lap and felt his hard length against the line of my panties, pressing up against just where I needed the friction the most.
“Really fucking love these dresses,” Santo said, lips against my neck as his hands sank into my ass under my skirt.
“Because of the easy access?” I asked, tipping my head to the side to give him more room to explore, his lips and tongue and the scrape of his stubble making my sex clench hard as he moved over my skin.
His chuckle was deep and sexy and vibrated against the shell of my ear. “Well, that’s part of it… now,” he said, fingers teasing the line of my panties. “But I just like them,” he told me, running his tongue up the side of my ear, making my belly go liquid.
I liked that more than he could know. That he liked how I dressed. The last guy I dated used to complain, saying my dresses always made him feel like he wasn’t dressed nicely enough. Like it was my fault all he owned were ratty jeans and worn-out t-shirts.
Santo’s lips claimed mine again as his hands slipped down from the waistband of my panties, teasing over the bare skin of my ass before moving forward. Over my hips. Across my belly. Then down.
“Fucking drenched for me,” he said as his fingers pressed between my thighs.
The moan rose to meet the pleasure, but the sound got cut off, replaced with a gasp when there was a loud crashing sound coming from the other end of the house.