Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“Shut up, T.A.”
She couldn’t. As badly as she wanted to, she just couldn’t.
“I know you don’t like me as much as I like you, but I wanted you to like me at least a little—”
“Please stop,” he begged, his face a tortured mask.
She tried, she really, really tried.
“Please don’t be mad at me. I’ll run out and get a portable heater, and I’ll have Charlie fix a takeout order. I won’t be thirty minutes—”
One second, she was rambling at him, the next she was lifted into the air. Gasping, she lifted her wondering eyes to his.
“What are you doing?”
T.A. gave a high squeal when she found herself unceremoniously dropped sideways on her bed.
“Can you be quiet five seconds, so I can get a word in?”
Her mouth snapped closed.
“You’re driving me insane. You know that?”
She managed to nod shakily. “You’ve said that before.”
“Zip it.”
She closed her mouth, pretending to zip it.
He started pacing back and forth in the small room.
“You are the most irritating female I have ever met. How many times have I told you I want our relationship to stay platonic, and it just blows right over your head? Not only are you irritating, but you’re pushy. You texted me at least thirty times if I was coming. Let’s not even go into you texting Grace for my favorite recipes and food, and Dax for my favorite movies to watch.”
She was starting to get dizzy watching him going back and forth.
“And can you tell me why in the world you needed to know which bread I prefer?”
“That one was for Al. He has a few issues.”
“No shit. He isn’t the only one.”
Her eyes narrowed on him angrily. “Are you being sarcastic, saying I have issues?”
Dalton stopped pacing to look down at her like she escaped a mental hospital.
“More than a few, sweetheart.”
“If you feel that way, then why are you here?” Her bottom lip started wobbling again.
Dalton started taking his coat off angrily. “I already told you that you’re driving me insane, that’s why.”
She watched in amazement as he threw his coat to the floor before he bent over the bed to place each of his hands above her shoulders.
“You have literally driven me criminally insane. I flew to France to stay in the house Oceane and I lived and raised our children in. You know what? The whole fucking time I was there, I wasn’t missing Oceane, I was fucking missing you! You know why I didn’t kiss you? Because I was afraid if I did, I would drag you back to the car and fuck your brains out. The more I try to tell myself that I can keep what’s between us platonic, the more texts I get from you. Every single fucking time I try to remember how much Oceane and I loved each other, I get another text from you. And mostly, I want you to stop crying because you’re tearing me apart.”
She raised her hands to wipe her tears away. “I’m trying.” Failing miserably to stop the sobs, she started hiccupping.
The loud groan was the only warning she was given before his body covered hers. His mouth hovered over hers as their tumultuous eyes met. His filled with guilt, hers with dawning desire.
T.A. waited, her breath hitching in her throat as his lips started to lower. Raising her hands, she pressed her palms on his chest, stopping him.
“Wait…”
Dalton raised his head to stare down at her in astonishment. She really couldn’t blame him; she had been begging him to have sex with her for a while.
“You want me to stop?”
“No! I just need to know something first.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“No.”
Dalton’s forehead rested on hers.
“This isn’t a mercy fuck, is it? I mean, it’s okay if it is. I still want to fuck. I just want to know if it is or isn’t.”
She could feel his shoulders shaking in laughter. “No, it’s not a mercy fuck.”
“Good, that’s all I wanted to know. You can go ahead.”
“You sure?”
Seductively twining her arms around his shoulders, she pulled him downward, rubbing her breasts against his chest sensuously. “Hollywood, what do you think?”
23
T.A. had asked him what he thought. The truth was, he stopped thinking with his head when she opened the door and he realized she was upset. As the words tumbled out of her mouth, he had made another mistake, this one even more disastrous than when he had asked her to spend Christmas in Queen City with him.
This one, there would be no walking away with his vow to Oceane intact. He almost rolled away from T.A. as Oceane’s image filled his mind, until she gazed up at him with lipid pools of desire.
Her head lifted off the bed, so their lips could meet halfway.
Oceane’s image faded away in a mist, replaced with T.A. as the thrust of his tongue had her head dropping back to the mattress. Her mouth opened wider too, so their tongues could tangle in a heated kiss that catapulted his need to touch every inch of her body into one that couldn’t be denied.