Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108119 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
They would have to choose.
And it would not be me.
“Why?” Tears streamed down her cheeks. I caught them, damning myself to Hell that I was the reason for them when I swore I would never let that happen.
“I can’t tell you that either. Just know it’s for the best. I’m not doing this lightly, Alice. I’m doing it because I see no other option, because my hand has been dealt, because I love you too much to let you go.”
It slipped.
The I love you.
I didn’t think she would notice it.
Instead, she launched herself against me sobbing. “I love you too much to let you go.”
“And I love you too much to see you killed.”
“You promised!” She beat against my chest. “You promised you would kill me if it ever got to that point! You PROMISED!”
I froze and then I pulled away and tilted her chin toward me. “What did you just say?”
“You.” Her lower lip trembled. “Promised.”
An idea formed as I took her mouth with mine. “I’ll never let you go.” I pressed her palm to my chest, to the scarred A while I pressed my free hand to hers. “Never. Never.”
“Never.” She repeated as she shoved me down against the mattress and straddled me.
I gripped her thighs; she’d be bruised in the morning.
I’d mark her with pleasure again and again.
I pulled her closer, and then she moved onto me.
I thrust up the minute she sank down.
“More,” I growled.
She was beautiful the way she rode me, the way her hair hung like a curtain giving us privacy when our bodies moved with each other.
The most beautiful thing I would ever see was this.
Us.
Together.
I jerked her down as our pleasure built, I sucked her bottom lip, bit down, and moved to a sitting position, wrapping her legs around me as her body convulsed tightly around me, sucking me dry.
“It’s going to be okay,” I found myself saying and believing. “Trust me.”
“A monster.” She nodded as she kissed me again. “I always wished they would save me. Don’t let me down.”
“I won’t,” I vowed.
And for the first time since feeling abandoned by every spiritual being ever worshipped.
I prayed.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Alice
The countdown had started.
We slept another three hours before I woke up with a hot Russian mouth between my thighs.
I spread my legs, my back arching as I gripped the sheets. “Don’t stop.”
I could feel his smile against my thighs, my body buzzed with each touch of his tongue. He pulled away too soon.
And then his hands were on my hips, slowly moving up to my breasts, like he wanted his bare hands to memorize every inch of skin, to ingrain them in his memory.
I sucked back the knot in my throat as he moved with catlike grace up my body, until he cupped my face with one hand and just stared at me, his eyes piercing, his lips swollen from the last few hours.
I knew it was almost time.
I’d been keeping track.
Or maybe my heart just knew without having to look at the clock.
We had two more hours before whatever was going to happen… happened.
He still kept me in the dark.
Maybe it was better that way.
Maybe it wasn’t.
But he asked me to trust him, so I did.
Blindly.
“I watched you,” he confessed. “When they brought you in, I watched you, and my response to you hurt, it fucking hurt, like something had zapped my heart forcing me to notice it again. And then I hated you for making me feel anything. Now I can’t imagine being numb again.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds, and when he opened them, they were glassy.
I did that.
I was making the monster cry.
My lips trembled.
He kissed them then, pressing his mouth to mine. “I promise I’ll try. I promise I’ll try, but if I can’t… if I can’t do it, I need you to ask me.”
“Ask you?”
“I need you to ask me to kill you.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“I can’t take the risk that they would torture you, that they would gang up on me, I’m not their blood, so in this scenario I don’t have the pull that Chase does. Just promise me.”
“Kill me.” I locked eyes with him. “Ubei menya.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. “It sounds too beautiful, too wrong coming from your lips.”
I smiled and made the mistake of glancing at the clock again. Ninety minutes with a man who should have always been mine.
“No more talking.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him down, only to have him adjust his position and flip me onto my stomach. “What are you—”
“Hmmm?”
“Never mind,” I said against the pillow as I felt his heat against my ass, the backs of my thighs. His body was so hard, so hot settled against my skin, like this is how my fairy tale was supposed to end.