Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
He stopped for a moment, and then the most brilliant smile crossed his face and he laughed. He reached out a hand and grasped hers. “Come here, brat. I’ve missed you.”
He kissed her, his hands steady on her waist while his lips moved over hers. He took his time, exploring her mouth, sliding his tongue along hers, drugging her with his nearness.
Oh, how she’d missed him. These weeks had been filled with quiet revelations, but none so big as the fact that she was in love with Zachary Reed.
But love didn’t have to last forever. Love could come and go.
Or this could be the love of her whole damn life. She’d once asked her mom if she would have taken back the heartache of losing her dad.
Not even if he had never come home to me. Loving your dad made me a better person. No matter how it ended.
When she stepped away, she kicked off the aforementioned Crocs and pulled the jumper over her head. She was calling it a jumper now instead of a sweater. Like this time and place were so different from reality it had its own language.
This was their space. Their time. It wouldn’t last long, but she was going to let herself revel in it until she had to give him up again. Until she had to watch him meet fate.
She wriggled out of her jeans and then did away with her cotton bra and panties. She normally had gorgeous fet wear and lingerie she made for herself, but it felt right to be in her own skin with this man. To feel primal and stripped down to her rawest self. A piece of her no one would ever witness. Only Zach.
She moved in and put her hands on his chest, memorizing the scars there. The long one that ran from under his right shoulder blade almost to his pec.
“Bulgaria. Knife fight over a piece of intel we were supposed to bring back,” he said quietly.
“What was the intel?” she asked.
“I don’t know, sweetness. That’s part of the job. It was supposed to be a dead drop, but someone was watching,” he admitted.
She found the round one on the other side of his chest. “That’s a bullet wound.”
He nodded. “Yep. Happened in Australia. And the one on my bicep was from getting caught under a shit ton of building when your cousin cut the wrong wire on a bomb. Took them hours to dig me out.”
“And this one?” She touched the one on his cheek.
“Fell off my bike when I was twelve,” he replied. “Probably needed stitches, but my aunt was a former soldier so she butterflied me up and we kept going.”
So much of his life had been dangerous. Even his childhood, since every moment was about survival. About trying to outrun the past.
“Give me your hands, Devi,” he commanded softly. “I want to play. I want to be in control for a little while. I want to know I’m taking care of someone rather than wrecking lives.”
He needed this as much as she did. Needed her. It was enough for now. She held out her wrists. “I would like to play as well, Zach. Can we… You know the kidnapping thing is kind of hot when you think about it. In the right circumstances. It used to be a fantasy of mine, but then someone actually kidnapped me and it ruined it.”
“You were kidnapped twice, sweetness. Twice.”
Three times, but one of them was him so she was pretty sure he didn’t think that counted. She wanted it to. In the sexiest way. “Please, Zach. Can’t you make kidnapping hot like it was before?”
His lips curled up. “You want to role-play. Yeah, I can do that. How hot do you want it?”
“Singe me. Make me feel it. I want to be warm all the way until tomorrow,” she admitted.
His whole demeanor changed, and he seemed to grow a freaking foot. “Devon Taggart. Do you know why I brought you here?”
Oh, her damn pussy responded to that. They could have been doing this for weeks. “You took me from my parents’ home. No, I don’t know why you took me. It was a mistake, but you can take me back. I’m sure my father would simply be happy to see me again.”
He chuckled, a deeply satisfied sound. He grabbed the jute off the table and expertly wound it around her wrists, making her feel it, but not so much it would bite into her skin. “There was no mistake, sweetness, and we both know your father isn’t the problem. However, I’ll handle your mother. You’re here to serve me. Would you like to know how?”
She knew and her nipples were so tight it was almost painful. Like she might be able to use them as weapons. Huh, she wondered if her cousins ever did.