Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 91064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Scarlett’s wild like an animal. When she feels threatened, she will fuck up whatever is standing in her way.
I learned that lesson the hard way.
I grab hold of her wrist, and she tries with her other, which I grab hold of too. They are small in my hands. Too fragile. I don’t know how a girl so fragile has survived for so long on the road she’s chosen for herself.
“I wasn’t going to stab you again,” she lies. “Let me go.”
“No.”
A tiny flicker of panic moves through her features, but she’s still playing it cool. Scarlett doesn’t like to be restrained. But like I said before, I’m done coddling her. She’s going to get used to me. And she’s going to learn to trust me.
I lean in with my body, pressing hers into the wall. Her wrists are pinned between us. Her eyes wide when she looks up at me and my face dips down to hers.
Before tonight, I’ve never had the pleasure of tasting her lips.
She’s never let me get that close.
But right now, as vulnerable and skittish as she is, I have a notion it’s not going to be the only time.
Her eyes plunge to my chest, and I laugh. It pisses her off.
“Kiss me again,” I tell her.
She opens her mouth, prepared with something hostile. But I don’t let her get that far. My mouth crashes onto hers and I groan because fuck… she tastes so good.
I think she’s going to push me away. Or maybe loaf me in the head. But instead, her jaw relaxes, and she gives in. A dangerous thing when my self-control is currently hanging by a thread.
All I want to do is bury myself inside of her. Claim her in a way that nobody else can ever have.
But what I want more than that is her trust.
And fucking her like every other lad on the street tries to isn’t the way to accomplish that. So even though she’s kissing me back, and I’m so fecking hard I could drill a hole in the wall with my cock, I pull away. Only to bury my face in her neck and inhale her.
She’s breathing hard, and the tension in her body has dissipated, at least a little. So I let go of her wrists, and she slides them down my chest and into the loops of my jeans.
Then her eyes meet mine, warm like brandy, and so different from only moments ago.
“Fuck me.”
I groan and give her one last squeeze in my arms before I pull away.
“Ye’re going to be the goddamn death of me, woman.”
My rejection triggers her armor to fly back into place, and again, she’s on the verge of fleeing. So I grab her by the hand and drag her down the hall to my bathroom.
“What are you doing?” she asks as I pick her up and plant her arse on the countertop.
I reach for the button of my jeans and flick them open. Sliding down the zipper as she watches with curious eyes.
“Trust is a two-way street, sweetheart,” I tell her. “And I trust that ye’re going to stay put. Because otherwise, I can promise you, ye won’t like it if I have to come to collect your arse again.”
She smiles at me in challenge, so I drop my jeans and kick them off.
Scarlett swallows, and her curious gaze wanders over my body. I give her a full minute to do just that before I walk to the shower and turn it on. And though I want nothing more to have her join me, I settle for letting the ice-cold water calm me the fuck down.
When I get out, she’s still there, her legs dangling off the countertop. I grab a towel and dry off, and then I move my hips between the small gap in her legs. Dragging my fingers up her calf to her bruised and swollen knee.
When I touch it, she flinches.
“A name,” I say again.
“I’m going to let you take me out on a date,” is her reply.
Again, I lean in and taste her mouth. For just a minute. Because I can’t help myself. And because I want to believe I’m making progress with her even though I’m suspicious as fuck.
Then I smooth away her hair and twist it back over her shoulders.
“What does my girl like to do?” I ask. “When she isn’t fucking shit up out on the streets.”
“Your girl,” she scoffs. “For the record, Ace, I’m nobody’s girl. And you really ought to stay away from me.”
I smile and she frowns and she isn’t done.
“I mean that,” she repeats.
“Do your worst, Scarlett.”
She stares at my chest and her fingers move over the tattoos there while she speaks.
“This dating thing,” she says. “It’s my game. My rules.”
“Tell me what sort of things ye fancy. And I’ll see if I can make it happen.”