Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
“Truth or dare, Knox.”
“Isn’t it my turn?” he pushes out, his gaze wary.
My chest is tight, an ache there. “No. This is my game.”
“Truth, then.”
“What’s between us?” My voice shakes. “Since last year, there’s been this connection and I can’t explain it.”
His eyes close briefly. “I know how it feels to walk into a room and feel as if no one really knows you. So do you.”
I stare up at him, running my eyes over his broad shoulders, that powerful chest that’s so still right now.
“Truth or dare, again, and you can’t say truth this time. My rules,” I say.
“This isn’t a very fair game.”
“Just do it my way this one time, and I’ll owe you one.”
He inhales sharply as if he knows what’s coming. His hands cup my face. “You are pushing all my buttons right now, do you know that? I’m barely keeping my hands off you, Tulip, and once I let go—”
“Truth or dare, Cold and Evil. You pick, and you better choose the right one, damn you.”
“Dare.”
“Kiss me.” I run my finger over that slice through his upper lip.
He shudders, his eyes lowering, pupils dilating. “I don’t kiss on the mouth, but you’re looking at me like…like…” His voice grows huskier as he takes a step closer until finally my chest is against his. I sigh into the hardness of the power I feel underneath me, the friction of his jersey against my button-down.
“Do you want this fucked-up mouth on you, Tulip?”
“Yes,” I whisper, heat firing through my body at the frankness of him. At this moment, I want his fucked-up mouth all over me. “I’d like to know if…if it’s still good for me.”
He stares down at me, the air thickening between us. “You’re treading on thin ice…” But his actions don’t align with his words. He’s sliding his hand into my hair and palming my scalp. His breathing intensifies when his lips hover over mine. “Tulip—”
Before I chicken out—or he does—I arch my neck and press my mouth to his, giving his scar my attention first, pressing small, lingering kisses to that indentation before parting my lips and sliding them across his in delicate strokes.
Seconds pass as I kiss him and he just stands there, until finally, he groans and wraps his hands around my nape, angling my head to get deeper. He murmurs my name, his lips hesitant then changing as I nip at him, tugging on the bottom one. His strong arms tighten around me, taking control of us, his tongue tangling with mine, caressing, our breaths mingling. His fingers scrape across my scalp as if he wants to get closer, to inhale me.
The heat of his mouth, the urgency of it sends waves of fire to my lower body, and I kiss him harder. Desire thrums through me, and it feels like I’m discovering a secret within him, kicking at his hidden layers, searching for the real Knox.
“Tulip,” he groans when we stop to breathe.
“Don’t stop, please.” It feels too good. Kissing him is like I’ve spent a day in the sunshine, and when night comes, the stars will only shine for me.
“I want to kiss you, I want to…” His mouth takes mine again, hungrily, with a ferocity that makes me want to crawl inside him for more, so much more.
“Am I doing it right?” He presses his open mouth to my neck and sucks on the tender skin, his teeth dragging.
“God, yes.” My hands slide up to rub his shoulders, tugging at his shirt, wishing it would magically disappear. I ease under his jersey and explore him, his six-pack, the rippling muscles of his chest.
“You’re shaking,” I say, recalling how he trembled outside Vandy.
“I’m scared.”
“Am I the first girl you’ve kissed in a long time, like really kissed?”
He nods. “But that isn’t why I’m scared. I’ve always wanted to kiss you, Tulip.”
He comes back to my lips and takes them again, his tongue declaring dominance and ownership. Kissing him is like freefalling into a hot fire, and maybe I should be afraid of this, but I crave the way his chest burns against mine, the way it ignites every atom inside me. He tastes like spearmint and sex and everything I want—
He breaks us apart, his eyes gunmetal hot, his sensuous, wicked mouth swollen.
“Fuck.” His chest heaves. “You’re too much. You taste so good—” He takes my mouth again, his hands everywhere, in my hair, on my neck, grazing over my pebbled nipples before landing on my hips. “Tell me to stop, please, Tulip, tell me, tell me…”
My skin throbs and I kiss him back with intensity. “Can’t.”
“Tulip,” he whispers, moving us until I’m against the wall and he’s hovering in front of me, his lips back on mine. “You…drive…me…insane,” he gasps out in between kisses. My hands cup his ass, and my pelvis swivels against his, aching for that tent in his pants. He mutters a curse and lifts me up so my legs can curl around him. I lock them around his waist as he dips his head and places his lips on the rise of my breasts. His teeth tug at the erect nipple underneath, sucking and biting through my thin shirt and bra.