Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 132582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“Do you mean of my touch?”
His eyes roam my face. “It doesn’t feel like the others.”
My head tilts. “How do you mean?”
“I mean…it doesn’t…burn like the others. Doesn’t hurt.”
“No? So what does it feel like?”
His mouth twitches, and he strokes the flesh inside my wrists with the pads of his thumbs. I don’t even think he realizes he’s doing it as he looks into my eyes, trying to find the answer. Or maybe he won’t answer me at all. Either way, I wait.
I don’t understand…
“Understand what?”
He frowns and releases my wrists. “Get out of my head.”
“I can’t help what I hear. Tell me what you don’t understand.”
He sighs, a pained expression taking over his face. “I don’t understand how it’s all so different with you. It’s as if my whole life has been a lie after meeting you.”
“The Tether, apparently,” I say, laughing a little. “That’s what makes it different.”
He looks like he wants to laugh, but he doesn’t. Still, his eyes are lighter, his features not so heavy and somber.
“It’s far too easy.” He grabs my hands again, this time entwining our fingers. As he does, he brings me in closer until our bodies collide.
“What’s wrong with it being easy?” I raise my chin, angling my lips. I want his lips again.
“Nothing in my life is ever this easy. What if I do die because you were too stubborn to listen?”
“Then we find a way to prevent that before it happens.”
“And if there’s no way?”
“Then…if you die, I die, and we go together.”
My words seem like a slap to his face because he winces, but our eyes hold.
“You don’t need your red pills,” I whisper.
“Not with you, apparently. But I will need constraint.”
“From what?”
His eyes spark. “Ravishing you.”
“When’s the last time you…” I swallow the rest of the words, but of course he hears them, and for the first time since meeting him, he cracks a smile, revealing a beautiful set of white teeth. He’s so gorgeous when he smiles. “You find that funny, huh?” I laugh.
“Why does asking about my last time embarrass you?” His knees gently bump into my thighs, forcing me back. The backs of my legs hit the edge of the bed, and I gasp as I fall on it. When I’m seated, he’s on top of me in an instant, cradling one side of my face in his hands.
“I don’t know,” I breathe as his mouth moves closer to mine.
“It was ages ago,” he says on the hollow of my neck. “Fuck, why do I want to be inside you so badly right now? The way I’m feeling isn’t normal. Is this what happens when you cave to your Tether?”
I’m not sure how to answer that, but that feeling he has, I feel it too. Every sense of mine is heightened now, all my desires bared. I want to blame it on the Tether, but it wouldn’t be completely that, would it?
“You’re changing the subject.”
“Fine. Six months ago.”
“That’s not ages,” I argue.
“It is to me.”
I roll my eyes, and he dips his head back, looking at me. “You’re angering yourself thinking about it.”
“I’m not.” Still, I’m annoyed.
“There’s nothing to worry yourself about. For the last person, I needed many red pills to even take the edge off.”
I want that answer to satisfy me, but it doesn’t. What the hell? Since when have I become so jealous over what a man does? Never in my life have I cared what a man has done with his body, but Caz is different. His body, somehow, feels like it should only belong to me. He shouldn’t share it, but knowing that he has…
“Who the fuck is Garrett?” he demands, frowning now.
“What?”
“You’re thinking about your last time with a fucker named Garrett,” he snaps, tipping his head back to get a fuller look at me.
“No, I’m not.”
“You are. I hear you.”
“Hmm. I guess that makes it fair then.”
Caz’s frown grows deeper, and I hear a growl building in the base of his throat. I’ll rip his fucking heart out. She’s mine. Fuck him.
“We didn’t know each other before you came here,” he says, as if trying to justify it. “So long as it doesn’t happen anymore.”
“You’re jealous.”
He grunts, then plants an elbow outside my head. As he does, he scans my body with his eyes. “Do you wear these clothes around him?”
“Sometimes,” I murmur. A tank top and pink shorts. No bra. I’d changed into the outfit when Faye and I started reading.
“Don’t ever wear them around him again.”
“Or what?” I challenge. Not that I’ll wear this around him anymore. I never want to see Garrett again.
“Or I’ll find a way to your world and fill his head with my bullets.”
“You won’t have to worry about that, trust me. But you should really get that temper of yours under control.”