Total pages in book: 227
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 220940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1105(@200wpm)___ 884(@250wpm)___ 736(@300wpm)
Brad growls when I latch onto his neck, my knees bending, my heels wedging into his arse, my nails scratching at his back. My body is on auto pilot. Coming. He pumps harder, faster.
Fucking.
Our wet flesh slips and slides together, our breathing becomes louder, our bodies tighter. He curses, I yell, and he lifts his chest from mine, forcing me out of my hiding place.
Looking down at me, he bites his lip. Beads of sweat drip down on me.
And then silence. Eyes locked.
My muscles draw him in, squeeze, and the pressure releases, draining the air from my lungs. I’m knocked out by the untold pleasure that rips through me, shaking uncontrollably beneath him, watching as his face strains, his chest expands, and his jaw ticks. He swells inside me, exhales loudly, his braced arms shaking as he comes calmly but hard. It’s fascinating. The strain, the form of his body when he climaxes, every muscle tightening before my eyes.
My gaze falls to the wound on this shoulder, the scar pink against his tan skin, and before I can stop myself, I’ve reached for it, stroking gently across the small area with my fingertip as he continues to throb inside me, and I continue to constrict around him.
“Does it still hurt?” I ask quietly.
He looks down, watching me touch him. “It aches from time to time.” He sighs and lowers to his forearms, his head dropped, my body still full of him. I’m content, without the energy or inclination to move, despite feeling stifling hot. It’s too peaceful.
I drift off, and for the first time in as long as I remember, it’s without the fear that the monsters will find me while I sleep.
9
BRAD
* * *
I suck on the cigarette hard, like I might be able to suck some sense into me. Too late. I don’t want to admit that I slept well for the first time in months. What’s more, without help from alcohol, drugs, or a hooker to exhaust myself in.
What the fuck have I done?
I look over my shoulder to the open doors into my room. She’s fast asleep, her naked body tangled up in the sheets. It took everything out of me not to sink my cock back into her when I woke up next to her. Everything I had and more.
I bring my cigarette to my lips and take another drag, exhaling the smoke with a sigh as I rip my eyes away and sink deeper into the chair, looking across the grounds. There was too much of that last night. Looking. Watching. Studying. And definitely not enough words to ensure we both knew this was nothing more than scratching that fucking insatiable itch. I roll my shoulder, my skin tingling. Too gentle. Too careful. Too fucking greedy.
“Fuck’s sake.” I drop my head back and stare at the early morning sky, puffing my way through the rest of my smoke. I stub it out and wedge my hands into the arms of the chair, pushing myself up. I enter the room and collect up the strewn clothes, draping them on the chair with her purse, and then I go to the bed. Lower to the edge. I should throw her out. Be cold. Cruel. Make sure she doesn’t come back for more.
I really want to be here.
God damn me, I reach for a lock of her blindingly bright hair, pushing it off her face. “Pearl,” I whisper, glancing at the clock on the nightstand. I need to get her back to her own room before the house wakes up. “Pearl, wake up.”
Her lashes flutter, her eyes opening. There’s a fleeting moment of confusion on her face when she sets eyes on me, her chest lifting from the bed, her head craning to check where she is. Yes, gorgeous, somewhere you definitely shouldn’t be. Even now I’m fighting the urge to crawl on top of her again. I intended to fuck her. It didn’t quite work out that way. I tried to pull it back when we moved from the office to my bed, told myself repeatedly to bang her hard, treat her like I’ve treated them all, with little courtesy and less tenderness. I couldn’t. It’s fucking with my head. But I couldn’t fuck her. Her age? The circumstances? I can’t save her from those fuckers and then treat her like an object.
So I should have left her well alone.
“Morning,” she croaks awkwardly, pulling the sheets in as she sits up.
“Hi.” Hi? I roll my eyes to myself, searching my head for the right words. There are none. She’s in my bed butt naked, I’m sitting here fighting the blood from surging into my dick, and I give her a hi. “It’s—”
Knock, knock.
My body freezes, but my heart clatters, as I look over my shoulder to the door. “Brad, are you awake?” Beau calls through the wood.