Five Hours a Year novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: No Clock

"Stay," I had said, and Alec put both hands on my hips and pulled me down into his lap.

He did it slowly, in case I changed my mind.

I didn't.

"Leah," he said, his voice low.

"Twenty minutes," I said. "From the first kiss. Isn't that your rule?"

His mouth twitched.

"It was."

"Then start counting."

He didn't count.

He kissed me, and it was nothing like the careful kisses of six years.

It was slow and deep, and it went on.

When I tried to breathe, he followed my mouth and took it again.

I had my hands in his hair.

I didn't remember putting them there.

"That was a minute," I whispered against him.

"I stopped keeping track."

"Alec..."

"Say my name again."

I said it.

He made a low sound in his chest.

He stood up with me in his arms, and the chair scraped across the floor.

The sofa bed was unmade, with the sheets still twisted from my night.

He put me down on it gently, and I pulled him down after me.

"I'm not fragile," I said.

"I know. I'm being careful because I want to do this right."

"Do it wrong. I'd like to see that."

He laughed into my neck, and then he stopped laughing.

He pushed my sweatshirt up and over my head, and I lay there in the gray morning light.

He looked at me for a long moment.

It was a very different look from the one he gave a contract.

"You're beautiful," he said.

"You've had six years to say it."

"I've had six years to be an idiot. Let me make it up."

His mouth moved down my throat to my collarbone, and then lower.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Five Hours a Year from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.