Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“I don’t mind picking you up, Pris. I only care what put you there.” Reaching to touch my cheek, he kisses me. “I want to be with you.”
“Me, too,” I reply, running the tips of my fingers over his abs. “All you need to do is help me with this dress and my boots and—”
“Not sexually.” He shakes his head, clenching his eyes closed and rubbing his forehead. When he reopens them, he’s more determined than ever. “No, I want you sexually, too, but I want us to date. It sounds so fucking old-fashioned, but I don’t want to just be someone you fuck or mess around with when I’m in town. I want us to be together. I want us to be a couple.”
I have to lift my jaw off the floor before I speak, but my mind hasn’t fully processed what he’s saying. Hope flourishes. “You want to be my boyfriend?”
Holding my hand, he flips it over and doodles on my palm with his finger. “Yeah, I want to be your boyfriend.” There’s an uncertainty in his tone that I can only interpret as him fearing rejection. “I didn’t text because I didn’t know how you’d take that or if I was assuming too much. You might have felt the same.”
“I didn’t want you to feel pressure from me.”
“I was missing you the entire time.”
My heart beats proudly in my chest, and five steps in front of my indecisive brain, and is ready to sign on the dotted line. “I’ve thought about you every day but tried so hard to let you go, to let you lead the life you’ve chosen elsewhere.” It would be so easy to just jump in heart first, but then rationale kicks in. “You live in another state.”
“We’ll make it work. I promise. We’ll visit each other. I can fly you up anytime you can get away. I’ll fly here regularly.”
I want to be with him. It’s what I’ve wanted my whole life, but my judgment is as clouded as the sky is outside. Am I caught up in storms and distracted by incredible abs, aroused because we’re finally standing on the verge of being fully together, and timid that beyond our bodies, we’ll be exposing our souls? I’m wrapped so tight in a myriad of emotions that the weight is almost smothering.
As I look into his eyes, it’s not about making him feel better. It’s about making sure this is the right decision for both of us. It only takes a moment of swimming in his dreamy greens to know what I should do. For me. “I want to be with you, too. Sexually,” I say, smirking. He sports his own roguish grin in reaction. “And dating. I’ll be your girlfriend.”
I’m embraced in his arms and kissed in a way that might not be legal in this state. They can take me away in handcuffs before I ever stop kissing this man. Except now to say, “Make love to me, cowboy.”
CHAPTER 21
Christine
Poof!
My dress is gone under Tagger’s deft fingers after a quick lift of my arms, the ruined garment draped next to his on the railing.
My bra follows, but a cool gust of wind blowing across my breasts has me reaching out to hold his shoulder to steady myself under a shiver. He places a kiss on each nipple, then runs the flat of his tongue over them. I knew he’d be smooth, but I didn’t expect the seduction. It’s better than any dream I ever had of him.
I appreciate his attention to detail.
Right here and now, nothing exists outside this connection—physical, emotional, intense. If we didn’t go any further, it would still be a highlight in my memories forever.
Cherished in his care, beautiful under his gaze, and the slow pace makes me feel like I’m the only woman in the world who’s ever mattered. He doesn’t have to take his time with me. I’m not fragile in that way. But that he’s choosing to savor every stage we enter only reaffirms that I can trust him. He wants to be with me, and I want him. I want to love him like he loves me.
I lean forward and kiss his shoulder, the muscles manipulating under my tongue as his hand slips to my lower back. I rub the peaks of my breasts across his skin to not only show what he does to me but so he can feel it too.
Sliding my hand down over his abs, I slip my hand inside the waistband of his briefs until I find his hardness needing attention. And now there’s an ache between my legs that has me wanting to jump ten steps ahead—to feel him, his large erection, buried deep inside me.
Tagger’s hold keeps me close as I rock against his leg, searching for relief that I don’t want to rush. I also don’t want the fabric barrier between us either. So I push back to take the cotton covering my hips and slide it over my boots to the floor.