Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
How the man could form simple words and make them sound so dirty baffled me to no end. They also did other things to me that were not helping my stance at the moment.
Hands to my knees, a long stroke upward settled them to warm my hips. Pulling me closer to the edge of the chair, he murmured, “I’ll make you an offer. Allow me to remove this plug, make love to you until you scream, and knot you fresh.” Wicked, he grinned. “You can have confidence that a fresh plug will not budge until at least the morning, and I get to enjoy you at your most beautiful when I introduce you to my friends.”
Gasping, breathless with his touch, I said, “This is beautiful to you?”
My body was distorted, the way I moved awkward. It didn’t feel very graceful or pretty. It felt cumbersome and sexually suggestive. Private.
“Extremely beautiful. Someday, our child will grow here.” Cupping my stomach, he stared lovingly at the bulge, going so far as to place a kiss on my belly. “What a wonderful thing it will be to hold our baby."
Exactly the wrong thing to say.
Grabbing a handful of his hair, I pulled his lips from my belly, so the intrusive man might look me dead in the eye as I snarled. “I need you to understand, Cyderial, I will not give the academy any children. Do not confuse my love of littles with a desire to breed my own. This is not something you can manipulate me into doing. I refuse.”
Undaunted, rattling encouragement at my violence, Cyderial untangled my fingers, pressing a kiss to my palm, as he said, “Our world might be very different in a few centuries, and I am a patient man. You and I can build the future we want for our unborn children, together.”
How strange it was to think of the world in centuries, when I had lived for only twenty-two years.
Pressing my hand to his cheek, he leaned into my touch. “Until you are ready, we can enjoy the thought of our future children, my darling. There is nothing wrong in that.”
This was not the conversation I anticipated. True, he shared what he wished for, and then he dominated all exchanges. Yet we oddly circled back to what I wanted to discuss. Sex. “So long as you don’t try to coerce me, admitting that you want a baby in time seems natural. I don’t have to agree.”
Teasing, he stole a kiss. “Babies. I want many.”
“Slow down.” I had firsthand knowledge that the man was not exactly good with children. In fact, he terrified them. “I don’t know a single child who likes you.”
“But you know many children who are alive because of my efforts. Hybrid children have a sixteen percent greater chance of making it to graduation under my protocol. Right now, my job is to keep them breathing, not make them like me.” More tender touches moved over my body, his fixed gaze molten. “I know it must be difficult for you to separate my duties from my character, but I will be a good father.”
“By reading journals about it?” I wasn’t trying to be cruel; it was an honest question.
“Few hybrids have had the example of good parents to emulate. Study is all we have, so yes, I will continue to extensively study child rearing.”
“Continue?” I sure as hell hadn’t seen signs of paternal behavior in the academy.
“Most of my reading involved how to care for a gestating mother, how to see to her needs. I will admit my focus was solely on how to care for you. But I did learn how to deliver a baby and what immediate care might need to be administered.”
I had no idea what to say to that, his level of obsession unsettling.
Leaning back on his heels, he began massaging my thighs once again. “Now you know what I want. To take you out, belly full, and show you off. And to breed you,” he purred, “when you are ready.”
The concept was absurd. The majority of my life since I was stolen from the academy, in fact, was absurd. “Which brings me back to the point that you want me to introduce myself to old men who have chosen to keep females ignorant of their bodies, with my belly sloshing around every time I move?”
Open carnal delight at the idea left him closing his eyes as if imagining it. “My beloved, this may seem like an unusual request, considering how new this is to you, but in hybrid-zoned sections of the city, we don’t have to pretend to be human. You are exactly as a well-cared-for mate should be. You are safe from your heat, you will be beautifully dressed, and I shall feed you wonderful things and promise to entertain you.”