Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Nonsense!” He waved a hand. “We’ve got all those bedrooms, and it makes me happy to fill them up with family again. I’ve offered Mabel’s old room to Kelly while she’s here, but your old room is all yours.”
He was so excited, I didn’t have the heart to decline. “Okay.”
“Thank you, Mr. Buckley,” said Lexi. “That’s very kind.”
“Call me Dad.” He smiled at her with a happiness that nearly broke my heart. “Please.”
Later that night, Lexi and I drove back to the house where I’d grown up. My dad had come home earlier and gone to bed, but he’d left the porch light on for us, the door unlocked. As soon as we stepped into the house, my dad’s dog, a German Australian Shepherd mix, came trotting into the front hall from the kitchen.
“Hey, boy.” I spoke softly, closing the door behind us. “Are you okay with dogs?” I asked Lexi.
“Definitely,” she whispered, scratching behind his ears. “What’s his name?”
“Fritz.” I switched off the porch light. “I’ll show you around tomorrow, so we don’t wake my dad.”
“Okay.”
I led the way upstairs and down the hall, pointing at closed bedroom doors. “This was Mabel’s room, where Kelly is staying, and across the hall is Xander’s, but my guess is he’ll sleep in there with her.”
Lexi giggled softly. “My guess is you’re right.”
Moving down the hall, I pushed open the door to my childhood bedroom and switched the light on. “And this was mine.”
“Very nice,” she said, looking around at the slate blue paint on the walls, the queen-sized bed with its navy plaid spread, the oak dresser and desk. “Does it look the same?”
“Sort of. But we had bunk beds back then, because Dash and I shared this room. That door by the desk leads to the bathroom.”
She dropped her overnight bag on the floor at the foot of the bed and wandered to the window. Pushing the curtains aside, she peeked out. “It’s too dark to see. Big backyard?”
“Yes.” Gently, I closed the bedroom door behind me. “Mom’s roses over to the right, playscape for Austin’s kids in the middle of the lawn, tree I broke my arm trying to climb on the left.”
She laughed sympathetically. “Oh no! How old were you?”
“Fifteen, I think? I only did it because my brothers were up there calling me a chicken shit and making clucking noises. It was either climb it or cop to being scared, so I climbed it. But halfway up, I made the mistake of looking down. Got dizzy. Lost my grip.”
She was silent a moment, staring through the glass into the dark. “You never mentioned your fear of heights.”
“It’s not usually something I bring up when I’m trying to impress a girl.”
Her giggle was soft. “I broke my wrist once.”
“Yeah? How’d you do that?” I moved toward the window. The top she was wearing was one of those off-the-shoulder deals, and the bare skin it showed had been killing me all night. Coming up behind her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed my mouth to the right side of her neck. Breathed in her scent.
Her arms covered mine, and she leaned back against me. “I was showing off because there was a group of older guys from my high school skiing at Snowberry that day. I was going way too fast and caught an edge. Wiped out massively. Sprained an ankle, broke a wrist. Decimated my ego.”
“Ouch.” I kissed a trail from beneath her ear down the slope of her neck to her shoulder.
“That’s what happens when you’re trying to do something stupid for the wrong reasons. You pay a price.”
I slipped my hands under the top, felt the warm skin of her stomach beneath my palms. “Mmm.”
“Devlin.”
“Hm?” I unhooked the strapless bra she wore. It fell to the floor, and I filled my hands with her full, round breasts. God, I loved her body. Strong in some ways, soft in others. A fucking playground of slopes and curves and hiding places.
“Stop. We can’t mess around here.”
“Why not?” I teased her nipples the way I knew she liked. My cock was bulging against the crotch of my pants, and I pressed it against her tailbone.
“Because your dad is home,” she whispered. But she reached up and cradled my head in her hands.
“So what? He’s in his sixties. I bet he’s hard of hearing.”
She laughed, and it turned into a groan. “We are loud. He would hear us.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do! I don’t want him thinking his daughter-in-law is a sex fiend who can’t control herself around his son.”
“I think he would find that charming. I know I do.” My hands moved to the button of her jeans, slipped it through the hole.
“Devlin.”
“We can be quiet,” I whispered in her ear, sliding my hand down the front of her jeans, inside her panties. I dipped one finger insider her—she was warm and wet and tantalizing. “I just want to put my tongue right here for a minute.” I caressed her clit with a slick fingertip. “What’s one little minute?”