Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 120631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 603(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 603(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Okay, he had no business saying such intimate things to her while he was down there whispering sweet nothings into her vagina. And damn her gullible heart for believing the crap coming out of his mouth.
His words landed somewhere beneath her ribs, in a place she usually kept locked up tight.
“You don’t have to be so gentle.”
“You just worry about you.”
She was worried about herself. Gentle was dangerous. Gentle disarmed her in ways desperate roughness never could.
“I know you’re holding back, Soren.”
“I’m moving at the exact pace I want to go, Joce. Stop stressing and enjoy it.”
It was too intense. Too delicate. When he came at her like a demanding brute, she could meet him head-on. Give as good as she got. But this slow, reverent worship was a language her body couldn’t speak.
She could write it. But living it in her own body was different. This was too close, too real, and she preferred using her characters as detached fictional filters rather than playing the main role herself.
A breathy gasp left her throat as he moved his fingers, rubbing her clit and building that wave to unsustainable heights that would inevitably crash over her and wash the last of her senses away.
“Soren, wait.”
He ignored her plea and licked into her again. Fingers strumming her towards completion, she whimpered and squirmed. Her hips rose to meet him without permission. Another sound escaped her throat, soft and unguarded, and then she was trembling beneath him.
“There you are.” She felt him smile against her pulsing clit, still working her with his fingers. “Stop fighting me, Joce. It’s a battle you won’t win. And look how good it feels to lose.”
“I don’t know how to do this,” she admitted, hating the tremor in her voice as aftershocks fluttered into an encore. “You have to stop being so gentle.”
He lifted his head then, his eyes finding hers across the length of her body, gold flickering in the mercury depths from the fire. Something shifted in his expression, the cockiness dimming into something quieter, something that scared her far more than his usual arrogance.
Truth and desire.
“I want this, Jocelyn. I want all of you.”
“You’ve had all of me.”
“No. Not like this. I want you to give me control. I promise I won’t push you further than you can handle.”
He already was. “I can’t.”
“You can. Stop thinking about what any of this means, and just, for once, let me have you.” Then he said the magic words he avoided at all costs. “Please.”
She closed her eyes, and that was all the consent he required.
He crawled up her slowly, pushing up her shirt and pressing kisses along her stomach. Her traitorous body arched into his touch, needy and tense.
“That’s it.” He unclasped the buttons of her shirt one by one, planting soft kisses on every newly exposed inch of her skin. He nuzzled the underside of her breast through her bra, as if pressing his scent into her. The wild flurry of her pulse fluttered at her throat as he braced his body over her, caging her in without pinning her down.
“Tonight, we aren’t rushing anything, Jocelyn.” He brushed a curl from her cheek, the gesture so tender she couldn’t meet his stare. “Do you hear me?” He kissed her softly. “I want you here with me. Not in your head, not planning your next escape. Here.” His thumb dragged across her bottom lip.
“I’m here,” she rasped, wondering why this was so hard for her.
Sitting back on his heels, he looked down at her, the weight of his gaze like a hand pressing flat against her sternum. Slowly, he parted her shirt and unclasped her bra with so much patience it made her want to scream.
He didn’t rush to touch what he uncovered. He simply looked, not at her body but into her eyes, and every time she tried to flinch away, the corners of his mouth curved, silently warning he wouldn’t let that happen.
“I’m not letting you escape this time. Finally got you to that second location,” he teased.
Eye contact was somehow worse than being touched. It felt heavier, more intentional. “You’re doing this to torment me.”
“I’m doing this for pleasure.” He laughed. “Yours, believe it or not.”
“Well, it doesn’t feel pleasant.”
“Don’t lie when I can still taste your orgasm on my tongue.” He climbed off of her. “Turn over.”
“Soren.”
“Trust me.”
He guided her onto her stomach. His hands brooked no argument as he peeled away the last of her clothes. He didn’t force her, and maybe some part of her wished he would. She needed friction. Speed. Anything to push past this grueling exercise of whatever the hell he was trying to prove and get to the stuff she could handle.
Pillowing her cheek on her folded arms, every muscle in her spine drawn tight as wire, she lowered her head. The tension in her shoulders was getting tighter, each elongated moment twisting like the key of a wind-up doll in her back.