Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
He honestly didn’t know what love was. He felt that emotion through her. The way she loved her family. She extended that same sentiment to Aura. When he touched on her feelings for him, there was passion. Intrigue. Fascination. Admiration. The beginnings of affection. He knew he wanted her to feel that emotion others called love for him. He wanted that unswerving loyalty for himself. The strange thing was, he was feeling those emotions toward her.
“As much as I desire to make you wholly mine, Safia, the conversion will ensure we are safe. I gave my word to your family, but more importantly, I want this for you. I have so little to offer you, and following the customs of the Amazigh people is one of the few ways I can ensure you feel you are still in your world.”
“Once you assured me I would always be Imazighen, I was satisfied, Petru. You’re right, nothing will ever change who I am. I love being Imazighen. I love that you recognized that being close to my family was important to me. Marrying someone from a different land with such unusual customs is frightening, but you’ve eased quite a lot of my fears.”
“I haven’t been able to take away all your fears. I wish I could, but it’s impossible when you’re being forced to marry a stranger on a promise given two thousand years ago.”
Her fingers massaged his scalp, a soothing yet stimulating caress that made him feel more connected to her than ever. She seemed to cast her spell so easily. She smiled at him, her dimple showing, her eyes lighting up. His heart lurched in his chest. He understood chemistry, his cock leaping to life, but not the way his heart stuttered or his stomach tied into knots. Those were new experiences, ones he would have to take out and consider when he was alone.
“When you were born, apparently your soul was split in two, and somehow one half found its way into my keeping. That decision was never in your hands, unless I misunderstood how things work in your world.”
“You didn’t,” he admitted.
“You believed you would die in the war, and you should have. Am I correct?” She persisted.
The problem with having an intelligent woman, one able to recall every detail, was she could turn around faster than you could argue with her. He nodded. He should have died. The remaining Carpathians had been in bad shape and couldn’t have saved him. It had been Kahina who had saved his life, and he had needed to be in the ground for months. Aura’s mother and Kahina had provided blood for him.
“There are no official written records in our family,” Safia said, “but every night after dinner, it is tradition to tell stories. The warrior saving our people is legendary. That was you. Of course, to us it was a story that set our hearts pounding. We loved hearing it told in various ways. There were many such tales of demons and vampires and other mythical creatures. Reasons we learned to use strange weapons and the art of defense. Each generation became more proficient. The promise to you of marriage to me was made because Kahina saved you against your will. She knew you would have to return to save our people once again. If you didn’t come back, she believed Lilith would win.”
“I told her I wouldn’t survive knowing you were in the world and I couldn’t get to you.” He remembered that much, but it had taken him this long to remember. There had been a reason he had refused to give up on life, even when he knew he was long past his time.
“I am still your lifemate. You were never responsible for anything that happened, any more than I am.”
He kissed his way from her chin to the top of the enticing curves of her breasts. “No matter how you want to put it, Pelkgapâd és Meke Pirämet, I didn’t get to you in time to save you.” He traced the bluish-white scar surrounding her heart and then pressed a kiss over it.
“If you insist on taking blame, then I must, too. I am not being forced against my will. If you need to know one thing about me, Petru, no one can force me to do anything I don’t want to do, not even a lifemate. Search my mind and see if I am being coerced. What I am doing with you is entirely free will.”
He kissed his way along the curves of both breasts. “I did search your mind, Safia. It was very important to me to know how afraid you were and if your family had in any way threatened you. I wanted you to come to me on your own.”
He lifted his head because he had to be honest with her, his eyes meeting hers. He was an ancient and ruthless. Most of the time, merciless. He had cared nothing for the emotions of others—until Safia. “If you search my mind, you will see had you not come to me eventually of your free will, I would have forced you.”