Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44622 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 223(@200wpm)___ 178(@250wpm)___ 149(@300wpm)
My stomach flutters, and I don't even have to check to know my nipples are diamond-hard. He may be the last person I want to see, but my body still remembers him, dammit.
He doesn't even attempt to step out of my way, his big body blocking the entire path. My only options are to speak to him, walk into the vines to avoid him…or plow through him.
Hell will freeze over before I touch him. And it's June in California, so I'm not holding my breath on it freezing anytime soon. Pity, really. He could do with a little frostbite, preferably in his nether regions.
I don't really want to break through the vines like I'm Jill of the Jungle, either. If they were only his, I'd be tempted to do it, but the vineyard belongs to his entire family. I'd rather not mess it up for them just to spite him.
"Excuse me," I snap. I tried being polite to him when I got here. He was a dick, so now, he gets attitude and aggression.
He doesn't say anything, not a single word. He just continues to smirk at me like the little devil on his shoulder has taken the reins. Not that it needed to take them or anything. Oliver swears he's his brother, but Oliver is a saint. This man was forged in the bowels of hell.
Huh. Guess that's how God feels about Lucifer and Raphael.
"Ridley, I'm not in the mood for whatever stalkerish crap you're pulling today. My head hurts," I growl. "Move."
"Stalkerish crap?" One dark brow rises toward his hairline. "You're mighty full of yourself, Dimples. Some of us are working, not following you around like your little acolytes."
"Do not call me that. Just get out of my way and go back to not speaking to me, please." I attempt to step around him, but he moves with me. "Ridley, I'm serious."
"So am I. I'm not fucking stalking you, Paisley."
"Whatever you say. Now, move."
"You in a hurry to go meet someone?" His expression darkens. If I were more delusional than I am, I'd think it was jealousy. "Got some stupid motherfucker waiting to fall at your feet somewhere else on the vineyard?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Right." He laughs without humor. "You're up to the same old tricks, aren't you, Dimples? Who's the sucker you've got your sights set on this time? Jax? Gabe? One of the farmhands?"
"Maybe all of the above," I snap, planting my hands against his hard stomach to shove him out of the way since he won't move on his own. "Wouldn't you like to know who I'm fucking? I'll tell you a little secret. It's not you."
In reality, it's no one. I've never been able to move past him. And believe me, that's pissed me off plenty over the years. I was nothing to him, but he still had too much of my heart. And with everything else…well, I was a little too broken to even try getting over him.
He growls, an unholy, dangerous sound. Instead of me moving him, he moves me. His hands lash around my wrists, yanking me up against him. Before I can even draw breath to tell him not to touch me, he's hauling me off the path toward a storage shed.
"Let me go right now!" I yank against his hold hard enough to send us both stumbling into the side of it. We land with his back against the metal, and my tits crushed to his chest.
Electricity races through my veins, sparking everywhere his body presses to mine.
His breath rasps in my ear as he locks his arms around my waist. "Fuck no," he snaps. "Not until you tell me why the fuck you lied to me."
"About who I'm going to see? Because it's none of your damn business!" I stare at him, irritation, frustration, and far more desire than I'm willing to admit crashing through my system in a tidal wave. His hands are on me. I'm in his arms again. It feels like heaven and hurts like hell at the same time.
Every part of me wants to sink my hands into his overly long hair and kiss him until it stops hurting. But I already know I won't survive that. He'll break me all over again.
"You know damn well that isn't what I mean, Dimples. Why the fuck did you lie to me back then?" He barks another humorless laugh. "Christ, I believed every fucking word from your lying mouth. Was any of it real?"
"I never lied to you," I snap.
"Right." He reaches up, the back of his fingers brushing my cheek and leaving little fires in their wake. He looks pained—like I hurt him somehow. But we both know that's a lie. He's the one who ripped my heart out. He's the one who broke me. "Not a fucking thing you said was true, was it? And I'm a fucking fool because I still can't stop thinking about you. Three goddamn years, and I still wake up with your name on my lips."