Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 780(@200wpm)___ 624(@250wpm)___ 520(@300wpm)
“Oh, no!” Maci cried, close to distraught.
“It’s okay, sweetheart, we have plenty more. Maybe this time your dad will pay attention and stop being so distracted.” Theo sent me a razzing look as he tossed me the bag of marshmallows from the ground next to him.
“Hey, what can I say? I can’t help myself.” I turned my words to Maci. “I got distracted looking at how pretty your auntie is, and I missed the perfect moment.”
“That’s ’cause you lovie doves don’t never stop kissin’.” She huffed like the fact put her out.
“Guess I’m just a kissing dragon.” I smacked a bunch of loud kisses against my daughter’s cheek.
“Daaaaaad,” she drew out with a giggle and shriek, and I was chuckling as I edged back and carefully loaded another marshmallow onto her rod before I helped her place it back into the flames.
That time, I made sure to keep watch, then helped her build a s’more when it was ready.
“Be careful, it might be a little hot,” I told her as she went to take a bite.
She blew on it for a second before she nibbled the edge, chewed, then just dove in and took a giant bite.
“What do you think?” I asked.
She turned to look at me, her precious face a mess of chocolate and marshmallow. “I fink it’s my most very favorite.”
Tenderness pulled and lashed, and Emery curled her hand into the crook of my elbow and rested her cheek on my shoulder.
I glanced between them.
Love swelled.
Powerful.
Unshakable.
Absolute.
And I murmured, “Well, I definitely know what’s mine.”
Emery
A giggle rolled out of me as Kane hauled me up the steep incline behind him. The night was all around us. The moon just enough to light our path.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I kept my voice hushed against the bewitching silence that surrounded us. The only sound the low drone of bugs and the soft lapping of the lake hitting the shore in the distance below. “Won’t like a bear eat us or something? Raven hasn’t stopped talking about them since we got here.”
Maci had fallen asleep three hours ago in River and Charleigh’s tent next to Nolan since the two of them couldn’t be separated for a second, and once everyone else had gone to sleep, Kane had insisted he and I go for a walk.
He had something he wanted to show me.
Something he promised would be worth it.
Lightness drifted between us, this sweet contentment that I never thought I would find.
My home had become this place.
With him.
With Maci.
He sent me a cocky glance from over his shoulder. His smirk slipped through me on a fit of greed.
God, I would never get enough of this man.
“You really think I’d let a bear get to you? Besides, I think my Little Warrior can handle herself. Wrangle that bear right to its knees.” A playful tease filled his words.
“Hmm…I’m thinking dragon wrangling is more my specialty.”
“Is that so?” That magic gaze glinted as he glanced back while we trudged farther up the path. Our breaths coming short as we climbed our way up the side of the mountain.
“You did say I have you on yours.” It was so freeing that I could flirt with him and feel confident in it. Every emotion I experienced was so different when he looked at me.
The burn and the need and the comfort.
The joy and the hope and the peace.
He shifted around to face me.
The moonlight spilled over him, and the warm glow illuminated his defined jaw and the harsh cut of his brow.
The first time that I saw him, I thought his face was a carved sculpture of fierce, unnerving beauty.
And that’s what he always left me.
Unnerved and shaking.
One glance and a tumble of desire rushed through my veins.
A shockwave of that energy pounded between us. There was no chance of me not being completely swept away by it.
I didn’t care any longer.
I no longer wished to fight it.
Because I now understood why it was him. Why I was drawn, that connection so powerful.
Relentless.
Unstoppable.
Because that’s exactly what we were.
“Is that where you want me, baby? On my knees?” His voice was a low, guttural rasp as he leaned in close.
Heat brushed across my flesh.
Mine dipped to a whisper. “No, Kane, the only place I want you is with me.”
He dragged his fingertips down the side of my face, then gently traced them over my lips. “Good thing because I don’t plan on ever being anywhere else.”
We were nearly at the top, and he kept backing up the trail, tugging me with him until we crested the summit.
Kane guided me out ahead of him, and the breath escaped my lungs on a gush.
At the awe-inspiring beauty stretched out in front of us.
We were near the edge of the cliffs, boulders all around, the lake appearing like silvered glass from the glow of the moon that hung just over the peaks of the mountains in the distance.