A dozen good reasons to hate my body come flooding back, especially when I remember who’s feasting with his eyes.
Ethan, he’s been with tons of women, and I bet they’re all model-perfect.
Beautiful.
Flawless.
Either naturally amazing or airbrushed by expert stylists and pruned by surgeons in ways I never will be.
My thighs have cellulite.
I’ve never been able to lose that extra ring around my lower belly.
And my skin? Almost untannable after a lifetime in Maine and the worst British genes. Here, too much fun in the sun makes me skip right past the golden-brown tan and throws me straight into lobster-worthy sunburns.
“Hattie, look at me,” he whispers.
He isn’t moving now, even though his wide chest is heaving.
I swallow thickly.
I suck in a slow, steadying breath because—
Well, I’m scared of what I’m going to see.
Frustration clashes with the desire in his gaze, and the sight of it makes my toes curl.
“Whatever you’re thinking about yourself right now, stop.” His hand on my knee slides over, tracing my inner thigh. “Be in the moment with me. Listen and believe when I tell youI want you.”
Every word cuts like a flaming sword.
And it’s hard to ignore the truth behind his words with the large, pulsing bulge in his pants.
He leans over, his eyes still boring into mine.
“Deal? Do we have one?” His lips are soft as he ghosts them over my jaw. “You know better than this. You’re too damn smart. You’re not going to think you’re anything less than gorgeous before I fuck your brains out,” he murmurs against my skin, his teeth grazing my throat.
I shudder.
…does he hear himself?
Does he understand he’skilling meright now?
“Pages, talk to me,” he demands.
“O-okay. Yes,” I stammer, sighing as his kisses take full control. “Show me how much you want me.”
The challenge ignites his eyes.
He smiles as he unbuttons his shirt.
Not slowly, but with real deliberation, like he knows that every revealed inch of skin makes my mouth dry.
He’ll never know my struggles—and that’s what makes this so intense, a man with such confidence in his looks ordering me to sprout some with mine.
He’s supremely chiseled, boasting rigid, defined muscles I thought were myths until I saw them in real life.
A very smug, very male, very satisfied look shines on his face as he watches me bite my lip and blush.
