Now and Always by C.J. Burright

Author:C.J. Burright [Burright, C.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2022-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

The air smelled like cloves and tobacco again. Carrying two planks of lumber on his shoulder, Leo paused outside the ballroom and inhaled. So strange. Ever since the spider incident a week before, he’d swear someone smoked a pipe in various rooms of Granton Hall. He caught a lingering whiff of it every morning in the kitchen while making breakfast for Ren, as if he’d narrowly missed a visitor.

Every so often, both he and Ren smelled it in the ballroom, close to the dead grandfather clock on the landing. But there was never any evidence of ash, leaves or even a wisp of smoke. Ren wasn’t shy about her thoughts on the matter, that some phantom made itself known. He preferred to keep Granton Hall open only to the living.

He stepped through the open ballroom doors and stopped, his body tightening at the scene before him. Ren lay on her stomach near the area of damaged floor, a pencil in her hand, graph paper spread before her and dozens of pieces of various wood types scattered around her. Her feet were in the air, ankles crossed, and every so often one of her ankle boots absently flexed, back and forth. She frowned as she crafted lines and made notes in the margins, so engrossed in her calculations that she didn’t seem to notice him.

He set his burden down as quietly as he could, never taking his gaze from her. Good lord, she inspired his imagination in wicked ways. Her T-shirt had ridden up, revealing a tempting inch of pale skin at her lower back. He wanted to crawl to her and lick the dip of her spine to discover if she was sensitive there. Lying prone accentuated the delectable curves of her hips and ass, and his fingers twitched with the urge to touch, squeeze and hold on tight. His fingers weren’t the only appendages responding.

More than her body had his blood humming. The way she focused, measuring sections, graphing sizes and shapes to fit the puzzle pieces in perfect order? Irresistible. Provocative. She had no idea what her nerdy side did to him.

Two years he’d known her, and each day he wanted her more. He’d made it very clear where he stood, that he wanted all of her and refused to warm her bed if she couldn’t commit. That had been a full week ago.

He’d taken a card from her deck and played it cool this last week, pretended he didn’t want to drag her into his arms at every second—pretended he could forget the way her mouth moved sweetly beneath his, pretended his every moment wasn’t colored by the memory of her elegant hands in his hair, on his body, driving him mad with need.

He still wasn’t sure how he’d found the strength to walk away from her. The motive was strong enough, sincere enough. He’d meant every word, that they both deserved a love that could withstand any fear, that he wouldn’t settle for anything less than her entire heart.

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