Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
And what did Battle ask after I told him this?
“It was see-through?”
Because…
Of course he did.
And I’d walked right into that too.
CHAPTER 16
THE WALK
That night, I lay in bed, staring at the dark canopy, the room bathed in moonlight, two cats curled against my body.
A body that was still vibrating after the makeout session Battle treated me to at my door when he’d walked me to my room at the end of the night.
Like in my room at his house in London, it had been hot and heavy, and like our first kiss, he’d eventually pressed me to the wall so it would hold me up and leave his hands free to roam most pleasantly.
My hands roamed too.
As did both of our mouths.
One could just say, he would one hundred percent have had lipstick on his collar, if I’d been wearing any.
But then, he’d tipped my head, kissed the top of it then ran a thumb over my lower lip before he said, “I’ll see you at breakfast, sweetheart.”
And he’d sauntered away.
Sauntered!
Away!
Now, I could see him making the call not to go there with me the first time when his sisters were in bedrooms close to mine in the house in London.
Yes, it, too, was a huge house.
But it wasn’t nearly as big as The Downs.
So that begged the question, since all their bedrooms were clustered around the corner to the south wing, and his was at the very end of it, not to mention mine was in an entirely different wing, and as far as I could tell, the walls were very sturdy and practically soundproofed, why he wasn’t going there now.
We were agreed we were exploring this.
We’d been exploring this even before we agreed we were doing it.
And on our trip from London, I’d eventually gotten around to telling him about the conversation in the train and that we had his sisters’ blessings.
So…what was going on?
Flirting was fun.
Teasing was fun too.
But this was torture.
“Fuck it,” I said to Snowball and Gingerface.
They didn’t move.
They did when I threw the covers back and got up.
I went to the bathroom.
They came with me.
I turned on the lights, winced against the brightness and walked to the mirror.
I wasn’t a sexy nightie type of gal.
Sure, I had a few, but I hadn’t brought any of them.
Therefore, I was wearing a pair of plaid sleep shorts and a shelf-bra cami.
My hair was back in a ponytail, my face clean and shiny with moisturizer.
I did not look like a sex kitten.
I looked like a co-ed.
“Ulk,” I groaned, pulled the ponytail out of my hair and fluffed it.
Better, but not great.
“Whatever,” I bit off and looked down at Snowball and Gingerface, who were both sitting beside me, gazing up at me curiously.
As they would.
This was not our protocol.
“Let’s do this,” I said with more bravado than bravery.
If Battle didn’t want this, if he wanted to take it slower, if he needed to be in control of it, I knew he’d find some way to say that to me where I wouldn’t be totally humiliated I took this walk.
But if he needed some kind of explicit consent from me, something I would have thought he knew he had after I got my hands on his tight ass that night, then he couldn’t mistake me knocking on his door in my jammies.
I turned out the lights, and me and the cats stepped into the darkened hall illuminated by low floor lighting that was probably always on when it was dark so anyone could get to and from their rooms without breaking their necks.
The cats bounded after me on the longest walk I’d ever taken in my life.
We could just say, along the way, I changed my mind three times, and once, even stopped.
But I made it to Battle’s door to see it partially open, and a light was coming from the opening.
He did what I did.
Left the door ajar, in his version, for Baby Blue to join him without having to faff about with a doorknob with paws and without opposable thumbs.
And that was what happened, even before I gathered the courage to lift my hand and knock.
Snowball and Gingerface slithered into his room.
“Shit,” I whispered.
The door flew open.
My eyes flew up.
Battle was in a pair of drawstring pajama pants, navy with little pinstripes.
And that was it.
His broad chest was adorned with the most perfect smattering of dark chest hair I’d ever seen in my life.
My mouth got dry, and I was pretty sure I was going to faint again.
Fortunately, Battle’s arm hooked around my waist, and he hauled me into his room so forcefully, I would have cried out, but my mouth automatically swallowed it.
He slammed the door behind me…
Slammed it!
And turned me, still in his arms, walking me backwards across his room, his gaze locked to mine.
“Done being teased, darling?” he purred.