Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Five years isn’t ten. Five years is too soon.
But I don’t turn around, because I’m not ready for that conversation. I’m not ready to look into Liam Calloway’s eyes and figure out whether he’s here for the diamond or for me or for something worse. I’m not ready to explain where I’ve been and who I’ve become and why I never reached out, not once, in all the years since I disappeared.
So I keep walking, and he keeps following, and we maintain this careful distance like two magnets that know better than to get too close.
The smart thing would be to lose him. I know this neighborhood well enough to shake a tail, could duck through the bodega on the corner and out the back entrance, cut through the alley behind the laundromat, disappear into the subway and resurface somewhere he’d never think to look. I’ve done it before, back when losing a tail meant the difference between freedom and a prison cell.
But I don’t want to run from Liam. I want to understand why he’s here.
I just don’t want to understand it tonight.
I turn on to my block and stop beneath a streetlight, letting the yellow glow pool around me. When I turn to face him, he’s standing at the edge of the light with his hands in his pockets, watching me with those dark eyes that used to make me forget my own name.
God, he looks good. Liam Calloway was always unfairly beautiful, a man who could make you forget your own moral code just by walking into a room. His face has hardened since I last saw it, the boyish charm weathered into something more brutal, but it only makes him more magnetic. He stands there like a predator pretending to be tame, every line of his body radiating tension and quiet threat, and my body responds before my brain can stop it. Five years, and he still makes my pulse stutter like a rookie on her first job.
I remember what it felt like to have his hands on me. The way he used to fuck me like he was trying to crawl inside my skin, like he couldn’t get close enough no matter how hard he tried. Liam never did anything halfway, and sex was no exception. He’d pin me against walls, bend me over tables, wake me up in the middle of the night because he couldn’t stand having me next to him and not being inside me. I’d never felt so consumed by another person. So completely owned.
His hand closed around my throat in that hotel room in Vienna, not squeezing, just holding. Claiming. I was pinned beneath him, my back arching off the mattress, his cock buried so deep inside me I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began.
“You’re mine,” he whispered against my mouth, his hips rolling slow and devastating. “Say it.”
“I’m yours.”
His grip tightened, just enough to make my head swim, and he smiled like I’d given him the world. “Every gorgeous inch of you. Every thought in that brilliant head. Every breath you take.” He pulled out slowly, then slammed back in so hard I cried out. “I’m going to ruin you for anyone else, Hailey. And you’re going to thank me for it.”
He released my throat, his hand moving to grasp my hip, his fingers digging into my flesh as he ground against me. I could feel every ridge, every vein of him, as he slid in and out, his pace quickening. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper, my body meeting his thrusts eagerly.
His mouth left mine, trailing hot, open-mouthed kisses down my neck, pausing to suck at the pulse point. I could feel my heartbeat against his lips, my breath coming in short, sharp pants. His other hand cupped my breast, his thumb circling my nipple, sending jolts of pleasure straight to my core.
“Look at me,” he commanded. I forced my eyes open, meeting his gaze. It was intense, possessive, and utterly consuming. “Who do you belong to?” he asked, his hips slamming against mine.
“You,” I breathed, my body tensing, my inner muscles clenching around him. “Only you.”
A satisfied growl rumbled from his chest, and he sat back, his hands gripping my thighs, his eyes never leaving mine. His pace quickened, his hips moving like a piston, driving me higher and higher. I could feel my orgasm building, my body coiling like a spring ready to release.
“Come for me, Hailey,” he demanded. “Let me feel you come all over my cock.”
I shattered, his name ripped from my throat like a confession. And when I could finally breathe again, I slid down his body and wrapped my lips around him, tasting myself on his skin as I took him deep, letting him fuck my mouth until his hands fisted in my hair and he spilled down my throat with my name on his lips.