Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
The more frenzied we become, the more intimate we feel. The way we wrap ourselves around each other, touch each other, kiss each other, move together—it’s as if we are trying to crawl under each other’s skin. When it ends, it’s in a wild, wicked, sudden way. One minute he’s driving into me and I’m pressing against him, my nails digging into his arm, and the next I’m trembling with my orgasm. And the stark passion etched on his handsome face as he comes with me is the most sexy and yes, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
When our bodies still, our breathing fills the air, our emotions filling the room with the bravado of their creation. Love. Sex. Fear. Friendship. More fear. My fear, because I can feel a spike in Tyler’s mood, a shift between us. But his touch is tender, and he strokes my hair. “I’ll get you a towel.”
“Thank you,” I whisper as he pulls out of me, and when he turns away to fix his pants, his shoulders are bunched, the tension there is telling.
I grab paper towels and clean up before he can even make good on his promise. Because I know what is coming. Last night is coming. His desire to pull away to protect me is no longer a possibility. It’s a reality.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Bella
I slide off the counter, toss the paper towels, and grab my dress.
By the time I’m stepping into it, Tyler’s pulled on his shirt, and the action on his part reads like brutal confirmation that this really crappy day is about to get worse. My mind travels back to the backseat of Dash’s car, when I’d said I wanted Allie to come over and help me plan our wedding. Tyler didn’t say anything. He certainly didn’t offer an agreement. That silence was telling, and I hadn’t even noticed.
Suddenly, I need space before I explode on Tyler, and with that goal in mind, I rotate with every intention of leaving the room. Tyler catches my hand and turns me to face him, and I hate how heat zips up my arm. I hate how completely affected I am by him. I set myself up for heartache, but he’s not letting me walk away.
The next thing I know, I’m back against the island with his big body caging mine, his hands on the counter on either side of me. “Who was the man who kidnapped you?”
“Why, Tyler? So you have another reason to walk away from me?”
“Who is he?” he asks again.
“He said his name was Oliver. He works for the family. He was proper, or he played the game of proper. He wanted to talk. He asked about the file. He pushed me to tell him where it was. Eventually, he believed me when I told him we don’t have it. That’s when he tied me up and left.”
“He took you to a hotel room, Bella.”
“He was afraid of you finding us before we talked. But yeah, that was scary. He kept threatening you. I had to go with him, or he said—well, alluded to—something bad happening to you.”
Torment slices through his eyes. “I would never want you to put yourself on the line for me, Bella. He could have raped you.”
“I believed him when he said something would happen to you, Tyler. There was something about him, a lethal quality. I think…I think he’s a killer.”
“A killer,” he repeats flatly.
“Yes. A very proper, polite man who is a killer. A man too confident and secure in his looks and skills to ever rape a woman. Somehow, in my mind, that makes him more dangerous than otherwise.”
His jaw sets and he pushes off the island, offering me his back again, and running a hand through his hair. My insides twist in knots as he seems to study the ceiling before rotating to face me again. “This is what I was talking about last night.”
“And here we go,” I say, throwing my hands in the air. “I know all about last night and what that means. So go, Tyler. Just pack and go. I can’t do this hot and cold thing anymore.” This time I start walking.
He’s in front of me in a heartbeat, his hands shackling my waist, possessive and warm. The touch of a man who believes he owns a woman. The problem is, he’s right. He owns me and it’s going to be torture to dislodge myself from the roller coaster ride that is this man.
“What do you think is happening right now, Bella?” he demands. He’s always all about the demand.
“I don’t think, I know. You’re about to say you need to protect me, so we need distance, and we need to break-up until this is over, but it will never be over. Why did you have to play me like you did? Why did you make me fall in love with you just to—”