Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Daffodil,” he whispers to me, his voice thick with want.
Then he’s kissing me again, parting my legs further, and we both take in a sharp breath as he pushes himself inside me. Hot, sharp pain bursts between my thighs, white sparks exploding behind my eyes as I pinch them shut and try to breathe. I don’t dare cry out because I don’t want him to stop. I know he would if he knew I was in pain, and I want him to keep going.
But I’m able to ignore it. Brom continues to push himself into me, soft grunts filling the air, the loft creaking under our movement, the hay sticking to my hair, and I’m enraptured by the look on his face. The moon still casts his gaze in shadow, black sockets under black brows, yet from the set of his firm jaw, the grit of his teeth, the glint in his eyes, I can see pure wildness radiate from him. Like he’s both hunting for something and being pursued. Predator and prey.
Where are you running to?
What are you running from?
But those thoughts are taken from me when he slips his hand between my legs again and touches me with slippery fingers, and it’s as if all my pain melts away. A strange ache throbs, and my body coils as tight as twine, and suddenly, my world explodes. It’s all bright lights and colors behind my eyes, and I’m gasping loudly while he lets out a low moan that fills the hayloft.
I’m barely aware of his body stiffening above me, the sound of his heavy breathing. I still feel like I’m floating, higher and higher, through the roof and all the way to the moon.
It’s the most delicious feeling in the world, a whirlwind of energy unlike any I’ve felt before, and I never want it to end. I feel powerful, so powerful, as if I could crush the world like rose petals in my palm and take anything and everything I’ve ever wanted.
But eventually, my heart slows, and I feel back in my body again.
I’m smiling. Feeling stunned and stupid.
Until Brom removes himself, and I gasp. I’m going to be in so much pain tomorrow.
“I didn’t…” I begin, trying to look down as he makes himself decent. “Is my nightgown okay?”
Despite what we just did, I feel too bashful to ask if I had got blood on my clothes.
He seems to understand though. He looks down and shakes his head. “You’re alright,” he says, still sounding breathless. “Come on, we should get you back in your room before your mother notices you’ve been gone.”
I nod, feeling a little shaken. I don’t want to go back to the house and be apart from Brom. I want to stay with him. Talk to him. Talk about what just happened. Perhaps even do it again.
But there isn’t time.
We get to our knees, and he starts down the ladder, with me following. With each step I take, I feel sore, but I keep on going.
Brom grabs my hand once I reach the ground, and then he leads me out of the barn and into the field.
The world looks different now. The white paint of the house glows in the moonlight, the windows like dark eyes. The field itself looks silver, and the sky above is a velvet cape dotted with stars. The moon is so bright that it hurts my eyes to look at it. All around us are crickets and rustling in the grass and other sounds of the night. Everything is so alive.
I feel so alive.
Just like before, we don’t talk, but perhaps we don’t need to. Perhaps we’ve grown so close now that we don’t need to say a word.
When we get to my window, he helps me up inside. I had left it open by mistake, but the chill in the air feels good on my overheated body.
“Good night,” I say to him, feeling awkward as I stand at the window. “I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Good night, Kat,” he says, clearing his throat. He opens his mouth to say something else but then closes it.
Then he turns and walks off.
And I’m left wondering if all of that was a dream.
The next morning, I sleep in later than normal, my mother waking me up as she pushes the door open without knocking. There’s a hard line between her brows as she bustles into my room before I can even say good morning.
“Have you seen Brom?” she asks, an accusatory edge to her tone.
I freeze, my fingers curling around the edge of my blanket. “Brom? No. Why?”
She knows. She has to know. Do I already look different to her? Had I turned into a woman overnight?
“Because he never came home last night. Emilie said he was supposed to let out the cows first thing, and he never did. His room is empty, bed made.” She pauses. “His satchel is missing, and…there’s a general sense that he’s gone.”