Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
“That’s not—”
“I can’t feel whatever it is that I’m feeling when you keep pushing us there.”
His fingers tangle in my hair. “What do you feel, Carrie?”
“Too much, you’re too much, if we’re spiraling into hate. Just fuck me and let me go.”
“No,” he says. “No, I’m not letting you go. It’s not too much. It’s not enough. No more of those statements. They’re irrelevant because if you try and walk away, I will just cuff you to the bed like I said, and make you orgasm until you don’t want to leave.”
“I already don’t want to leave, and with you that scares me, Reid.”
“The idea that might change is what scares me, Carrie.”
“Why? Why would I hate you?”
“I told you that I’d let you figure that out on your own, remember?”
“Then let me. Stop pushing me into the quicksand.”
“If you’re in quicksand, baby, I’m right there with you so let’s make a deal. No more fear. We’re in this all the way, good and bad. Say it.”
“I don’t have a choice but to agree. I’m in. You already made that happen.”
“No running,” he adds, and then he’s kissing me, a deep stroke of the tongue that I feel everywhere. It drugs me into momentary submission and then there are voices, headed in our direction. Reid pulls his mouth from mine, his thumb stroking the dampness from my bottom lip, before he says, “Let’s go pay the bill and get out of here.” He takes my hand and we start walking, but his words are in my head: No running.
He really does think that I’m going to run and suddenly I’m not angry at him anymore. I realize at that moment, with his hand firmly around mine, that he’s allowed himself to be vulnerable with me when Reid Maxwell, the king of assholes, is vulnerable to no one, proven by him admitting fear. He’s invited me inside the walls of his private life, to meet his family even.
He’s torn down walls and trusted me not to hate him, even when he believes he deserves the hate. That’s his walls coming down, and that means I have to meet him halfway, and let mine down, too, but some part of me knows he’s going to hurt me.
But it’s too late to turn back.
Chapter forty-seven
Reid
As eager as I am to get Carrie back to the cottage in time to actually have her to myself for a decent amount of time before we fly out, I find her insistence that we wait for boxes, and take home her mac n’ cheese and mine for that matter, adorable. I watch her interact with the waiter who is scooping our meal into the takeout container, her brown hair tangling in the wind, her lips curved in a smile; those emerald eyes seeking mine often, telling me how engaged she is with me even when she’s talking to someone else. That’s the thing that I can’t explain. I’ve had beautiful, smart, sexy women just as engaged, but they didn’t stir what she does in me. I need her just as in this with me, and I’m in all the way. Right, wrong, everything in between, I’m in this and if I have my way, and I will, I will soon be in her.
I tip the waiter an extra chunk of change and give him a look to go away. He glances at the cash I’ve palmed him, gives me a look, and seems to get the idea. He leaves. “Let’s get out of here,” I say, reaching for Carrie’s hand. “We have plans before we leave.” I lower my voice for her ears only. “I need you naked and on my tongue right now.”
Her cheek flushes pink, and holy hell that little shy moment has me so damn hot and hard I might have to take her to the bathroom. “Reid Maxwell.”
At the sound of my name, I glance up to find a tall, dark-haired man with wild, curly dark hair, and brown hawk eyes. “Eli Matthews,” I say. “I didn’t know you had left your tower in the city.”
“One could say the same of you.” He glances expectantly at Carrie and I grind my teeth and force myself to face facts. Eli could be useful. We aren’t leaving.
“Carrie, this is Eli Matthews, as you already heard. We went to college together and you should care about him because he’s half the asshole I am, filthy rich, and connected.”
“Oh,” Carrie says, laughing. “At least you’re only half the asshole. And rich and connected works for my line of business.”
“Which is what?” Eli asks.
“Sit down,” I order. “The wine we were drinking is expensive, just like you like it. I’ll order another bottle. Unless you’re tied up.”
He glances at Carrie’s mouth and I want to punch the asshole. “I just finished up a meeting,” he says, grabbing a chair. “I’ll stay.”