Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
But what if it didn’t have to be?
He looked at Sloan, trying to picture what the kind of life she suggested would even look like. He had no frame of reference. He just didn’t fucking know.
“What if we did get to know each other better?” he said. What they needed most right now was time, and that might be the one thing they didn’t have.
She twisted on her dress until her knuckles went white. “I would like that.”
“Then why do you look like you’re about to throw yourself out of my truck and try to swim for the shore?” He pointed at her knotted dress. “You’re freaking the fuck out right now.”
“What an astute observation, Jude. I am freaking out a little. I don’t know how to be a mother, and I don’t know how to be in a relationship—if that’s even what you’re talking about. You’re being so incredibly careful with me that I have no way of knowing what in God’s name you want—aside from our baby.”
Our baby.
Would he ever get used to hearing those words? To thinking those words? It was beyond comprehension that some nine months from now, she’d be bringing their kid into the world.
So he didn’t focus on that.
Jude rotated to face her fully. “So let’s take a week. There isn’t a damn thing that needs to be decided before then.” Except he needed to figure out what the hell he was going to do about Romanov’s threat. It might be a matter of delving into the file he had on the man and figuring out something to use for leverage to buy himself a bit more time.
“A week.” Sloan blinked. “You can’t get to know a person in a week.”
“You sure about that, sunshine? Because I know your body as well as my own and we’ve barely been fucking more than a week.” He squeezed her knee, sliding his hand up her thigh. “I know that you like it when I push you to the limit and beyond. I know exactly where to touch you to make you go soft and wanting.” He reached the apex of her thighs and cupped her, stroking her softly over her cotton panties. “Tell me, what other man knows as much about you?”
Her lips parted, even though she didn’t look totally convinced. “If I wasn’t a virgin when we met, there would be others who knew that.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Fucking is the lowest common denominator. Just because some little shit has had his cock inside you doesn’t mean he knows your clit from your big toe—and it sure as hell doesn’t mean he knows how to get you off.” He snagged the band of her panties and dipped his hand inside, sliding a single finger into her. “Not like me. You could have been with a hundred assholes, and that would still be the God’s honest truth.”
She hooked a leg over his, opening for him, and let her head fall back to rest against the seat. “You’re unbelievably arrogant.”
“I know my strengths.” He stroked her with one hand and used the other to tug her dress off one shoulder, baring her breast in the faint light. “And I know you. I might not know your favorite food or your favorite book, but I know that you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for. I know you’ve been kept cooped up, your wings clipped, and that freedom is a heady thing. That you’ll fight tooth and nail to keep from having to give it up.”
Jude leaned down and tongued her nipple, lightly raking his teeth over it until she gasped and her hands came up to dig in his hair. “I’ll never cage you, sunshine. It’s not my way. I’d rather watch you learn to fly instead.”
She shuddered, her hips rising to take his finger as he slowly slid it in and out of her. “You seem to think you know a lot.”
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
Sloan covered his hand with her own, guiding a second finger into herself. “You’re not wrong.”
Jude smiled against her skin. “I know.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sloan stepped out of the truck and looked around. The ferry had deposited them onto Orcas Island, and they’d left the quaint little town around the dock behind, driving into the thick trees. It had almost been possible to forget they were on an island at all, but Jude had taken a turn and suddenly the Sound was there, the water dark and fathomless, and similar enough to the ocean at Callaway Rock to make her heart ache.
She forced her gaze away from the water to take in the house. It wasn’t extravagant by any means, but there was something charming about it all the same. The thick wooden timbers created a worn look that could have been built five years ago or a hundred, and the front door was oversized with a giant iron knocker. She shot a look at Jude, only to find him watching her. “What?”