Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Surely you know what an elevator is,” I say to him, pressing the button for our floor.
“Of course,” he says with a scoff.
Mmmhmm. I try to hide my smile.
We make our way to our room, which is nice, if not small in the way most European hotels are.
“This is what they consider fit for a king?” he asks, looking around with a shocked look on his face. “I would hate to see a room fit for a queen.”
I laugh and sit down on the edge of the bed, testing the firmness. “The bed is king-sized,” I tell him. “That doesn’t mean the room is.”
At that, my stomach lets out a loud growl, hungry as hell. I guess the last time I ate would have been the dinner at Shadow’s End. “I know we’re exhausted, but I’m starving,” I say.
He looks at me on the bed, and his eyes turn molten as he tosses the duffle bags on the floor. “So am I.”
He’s on me in a second, and I’m giggling under his weight, pressed into the bed as he kisses my neck.
“I’m serious,” I tell him, pressing my hands up against his chest to meet his heated gaze. “I need to eat before I have the strength to do anything, whether that means thinking or fucking.”
His mouth curls into a carnivorous smile. “You don’t need strength. You can just lie there, and I’ll do all the fucking.”
“I want food,” I tell him. “Or you’re going to have a Hangry Hanna on your hands, and you don’t want that.”
“Is Hangry Hanna the same as a Hungry Hanna?” he asks with a wag of his brows.
“No, she’s terrifying,” I warn him.
“I might like that.”
“You won’t. Besides, you can finally get that coffee you’ve been harping me about.”
His eyes light up. Hmmm. Seems coffee and sex are of equal importance to the king.
He gets up and brings me to my feet. I grab my duffel bag and head into the washroom to do my business and freshen up.
While I’m washing my hands with the round bar of hotel soap, I glance at myself in the mirror and nearly faint. I look dirty and slightly deranged, dark circles under my eyes and a rat’s nest for hair, coated with who knows what kind of filth from Inmost. My eyes themselves don’t even look like their normal brown. There’s a slightly golden sheen to them, or it may just be a trick of the bathroom lights. It makes me look otherworldly and decidedly not normal. Looking back now, I’m not sure if everyone was staring at Tuoni or at me.
Okay, maybe I need a shower first, then food. Then sex. Then thinking about the next step.
I open the bathroom door and shout into the room, “I’m going to take a shower first.”
“Can I join you, or do you need privacy?” he asks, appearing before me, already shirtless in only his pants and bare feet.
Well, there goes the whole food before sex thing. “You don’t mind showering with someone who will literally have dirt streaming off her?”
A low rumble sounds from his throat. “I’m the one who fucked you into the dirt, remember?” He steps inside the bathroom and glances around with a raised brow. “Besides, it will be my first shower. I need you to show me the ropes.”
Of course. I hadn’t thought about that. Living in Shadow’s End is like living in a mixture of Ancient Greek and Medieval times—he has always bathed in a tub, and we’ve never bathed together, though our little tryst in the Crystal Caves came close.
“Alright,” I say to him as I start taking off my clothes. I nod at his pants. “You’ll need to remove those, unless you want them wet.”
He gives me a smug smile and unbuttons them before stepping out. His cock is half-hard and already making my pulse quicken.
I bend down and turn on the tap, waiting for the water to warm.
“Like a waterfall,” he murmurs, stepping up behind me until I feel his cock at my ass. I move back into it in a slow, teasing manner while his bare hands coast over my hips. I can’t help but shiver already at the feel of his palms as they glide over my skin, as his fingertips press into my flesh. I don’t think either of us will ever take the fact that he can finally touch me like this for granted.
I step into the shower, the warm water cascading over my body, then turn around to face my king.
The expression on his face darkens with lust, his eyes taking in the rivulets running over my breasts, over my stomach, between my legs. I feel a little self-conscious, even though I probably shouldn’t, but it is our first shower together, and we’re rarely naked in front of each other like this. Usually, he’s pushing my dress up and fucking me without even taking his pants off. I’m rarely so on display or vulnerable.