Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 37324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
“You free after your shift?” he asked, his tone pitched just shy of smug.
I didn’t say a word, but the noise that came out of me was unintentional and not at all subtle. It was a low rumble from somewhere deep, a sound my body made without checking with my brain first. The kid’s head snapped in my direction. I was still leaning on the wall, cool and collected, but whatever he saw on my face wiped the grin off his. Some looks were louder than others, and this one bellowed that he’d overstepped.
“Uh…thanks,” he muttered, backpedaling so fast he nearly caught his heel on the chair’s footrest. He turned and nearly clipped a display stand as he hustled for the door with a mumbled, “Have a good one.”
Silence hovered for a beat. Ivy slid the hand mirror back into its slot and cut me a look that wasn’t angry but wasn’t thrilled either. Eyebrow lifted, mouth tight, and an expression that mixed exasperation with a flicker of something like amusement.
She rolled her eyes as if to say really? and reached for her broom. I shrugged unapologetically. I didn’t have to explain myself. She knew exactly what that had been. I drifted back toward the front to give her room while she finished sweeping with quick, efficient strokes.
Missy passed me with a sandwich in each hand and a thanks for lunch that I waved off. Lorna caught my eye and mouthed, “Salted caramel?” as she walked by, not bothering to hide her grin. She giggled when I didn’t take the bait.
I waited near the window until Ivy closed out her last appointment.
Then I drove her home again because there was no version of this where I didn’t. The hour didn’t seem long enough. I listened to her voice like always, letting details of her day file into the same quiet drawer in my head where her other details lived. When we parked, I got out with her, but this time, I walked with her inside.
I followed as she moseyed down the narrow hallway to the elevator, where the old brass doors were the kind that needed a firm push.
She turned toward me with that small smile she used when she didn’t want to show too much. I didn’t give her time to decide between more banter and a goodbye. I set my hand at the side of her throat, my thumb swiping along the hinge of her jaw, and kissed her like I’d been thinking about for twenty-four hours straight.
She met me like she’d been waiting just as long, settling some of the restless energy pulsing through me. Her mouth opened under mine, soft and hot, and the sound she made when my tongue slid against hers nearly snapped the control I’d been wrestling into place since we left the SUV.
I backed her toward the wall beside the button panel, one arm braced above her head so I didn’t press all my weight into her and the other hand spanning her hip to feel the heat through her denim. She fit against me like she’d been made for me. The hard line of my body locked to the soft, greedy shape of hers. Her fingers hooked into the front of my coat, tugging me closer, and then they were in my hair, pulling harder, and everything in me answered with a surge that felt primal—take, claim, keep.
I chased the taste of the candy bar she’d nibbled on earlier, swallowing her little gasp when I angled her head and set a deeper rhythm. Slow at first, then I was deliberately rougher, until she rose onto her toes, silently begging for more.
The need in my chest slid lower, sharpened, and the ache in my cock turned into a throb that bordered on pain. But I was almost grateful for it because it kept my head from getting stupid. I pressed my palm down along her waist, gliding around to the small of her back, and drawing her in tight against me, pressing the hard ridge between her thighs. She felt me—there was no fucking way she didn’t—and the way her breath hitched told me she liked it. I bit her lower lip, gentle but with a warning of what I was holding back. I soothed it with my tongue, and she answered with a soft moan that went straight through me like a live wire.
“Careful,” I warned against her mouth, the word rough because I could taste how close I was to not tossing all my good intentions. “You keep making sounds like that, and I’m going to forget we’re in a hallway.”
She smiled against my lips, and when she opened her eyes, they were bright and reckless, issuing a challenge. “Maybe I want you to forget.”
That sentence had every nerve I owned sizzling with heat. I pressed my forehead against hers for a breath, trying to remember the reasons I’d promised myself I’d go slow. This wasn’t a meaningless fling. Ivy mattered. There was nothing more important to me than her.