Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 95471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95471 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Looking over at my sister with undisguised warmth, Tarek says, “It was only a month later when I took that first flight and met your sister.”
Nora smiles at him and places her hand over his, then she can’t seem to help herself—she leans in and gives him a kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he tells her.
“Aww,” Autumn says, practically melting against me. Now her head is resting on my shoulder just like my sister’s was on Tarek’s a moment ago. She lifts her head and looks over at me. “They’re adorable.”
“You’re a romantic,” I realize immediately.
She nods unabashedly. “The hopeless sort. That’s why you need to keep your lips far away from mine.”
That last bit is said too quietly for my sister to overhear. I shouldn’t even acknowledge it with Nora in the room, but it only seems fair to warn my pretty little snowflake. “I wouldn’t count on that.”
Her cheeks flush, and it’s not from the fire or the shared body heat.
God, I love when she blushes. It’s so fucking cute.
Giving me a playful sideways glare, she pushes off me and leans forward to grab her mug of hot chocolate off the coffee table. It can’t be hot anymore, but she wraps her hands around the mug and takes a big sip of it.
As soon as she sets it down, I reach over and grab her around the back of the neck. She gasps in surprise as I pull her close, taken off-guard when I press my lips to hers.
I tasted her lips with whiskey on them. Now I want her hot chocolate kisses, too.
Despite just telling me several seconds ago not to kiss her, she melts into me, a low moan of pleasure slipping from her throat. Her eyes drift close, the color in her cheeks rises… God, she’s nice to kiss.
I’m not even much for kissing with most women, but Autumn’s kisses are so sweet, her lips so pliant beneath mine… I could kiss her all day.
Since my sister is in the room, I keep this one brief and relatively tame, but when I pull back, Autumn’s pretty face is still hazy with desire.
It probably wasn’t fair of me to kiss her just then. She was already feeling romantic after hearing my sister’s love story. Of course she was in the mood to be kissed after that.
Sighing, Autumn sinks against my side. “You’re a bad listener.”
“You’re not my boss,” I tease, leaning in and brushing my lips against her earlobe just to see how she reacts.
“Stop torturing me,” she complains, shoving me away.
Nora’s voice reminds me we’re not alone yet, so I’m forced to stop bugging Autumn—at least for the moment.
“Well, what about you guys,” Nora says, a big smile on her face. “It sounds like you have an awesome ‘how we met’ story, too. Broken down on the side of the road, my brother riding to your rescue like a knight-in-shining armor—that’s so cute.”
Autumn looks over at me.
I smirk back at her.
She smiles more convincingly and looks at my sister. “Yeah. It was something like that.”
Chapter Sixteen
Autumn
When my eyes open, I’m lying on my side in a comfortable bed looking directly out the window at a big back yard. Everything is blinding white—the sky, the ground. There’s even more snow falling, but it’s a light, fluffy snow, not the crappy kind I had to drive in Monday evening.
Was that really only two days ago?
It’s crazy to think I only met Jasper day before yesterday.
I’ve spent every moment—asleep and awake—with the man since he walked into my life. We’ve already been through so much—more than I ever went through with Brady, and we saw each other for months.
Normally it takes me a while to get comfortable with a man, but I’m not even self-conscious or uncomfortable lying here wearing only Jasper’s T-shirt and a pair of panties, his strong arm locked around my waist. It might be crazy since he’s technically the bad guy, but I’ve never felt as safe as I do in his embrace.
I sigh with contentment, letting my eyes drift shut for another minute. I’m not ready to be awake yet, and it’s so nice to relax here with the feel of Jasper’s body pressed against my back. That must be why I’m so warm.
I must have shifted more than I realized. With Jasper cuddled up against my back the way he is, he’d feel even the slightest movement. Whether it was that or maybe just his keen senses, something wakes him up.
He leans a little closer, burying his face in my hair and inhaling the scent. “Why do you smell so goddamn good?” he grumbles.
His grumpy comment draws a smile out of me. “Good morning to you, too.”
He doesn’t bother responding, just tightens his arm around my waist and tugs me back against him a little harder.