Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
And for once I let myself just enjoy this.
No shame.
No hate.
Finally Crane pulls back and reaches up, smoothing my hair off my forehead with his long, delicate fingers, and I’d forgotten how much I missed this part, the after, the peace and softness that follows. Our fucking wasn’t rough this time but even so, this quiet, it’s needed.
“I want you for myself, Brom,” Crane says softly, his grey eyes flitting over my lips, my nose my brows. “I want you for myself and I want Kat for myself and I’m not sure I want you to have each other.”
My chest tightens with a stab of possessiveness. “I don’t think you get to decide that.”
“Perhaps not,” he muses after a moment, giving me a fleeting smile. “But it’s what I want.”
“To have us both but not to share.”
“Something like that.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Yes, well, I have an uphill battle,” he says with a weary sigh. He puts his long thigh over mine, the hair of his legs tickling my balls, and rests his head beside mine on the pillow, his body too tall and large to fit fully beside me on the single bed. “After all, you’re the golden boy, Brom.”
I snort. “They wouldn’t think that if they knew the Hessian was still inside me. None of my supposed betrothal to Kat is because of me, of who I am. It’s not that I came from a better family or that my parents wanted something good for me, or that they all think I’m a good, worthy person at all.” The pain digs a deep hole when I admit this. “I see the way they look at me, like I’m not even fucking there, like I’m just seed to be used. It’s a transaction, isn’t it? I’m the golden boy to those witches because it’s what someone called Goruun dictates.”
He stiffens at that.
I swallow uneasily. “Did you find what Goruun is?”
He nods, licking his lips. “I did. I found out a lot of things today and none of them are good.”
I turn my head on the pillow to look at him, the pained expression held in the groove between his black brows. “No matter what it involves, or if you don’t want to tell Kat, you can tell me. I can handle it. I need to be able to protect her too.”
He stares at me for a moment, his lips moving as he runs his tongue over his teeth.
Damn it, Crane, what the hell do you know?
“I was called into Sister Leona’s office today,” he begins and I wasn’t expecting to hear that.
“What for?”
“For fucking Kat,” he says bluntly. “She wants me to put a stop to it.”
Raw pride and ownership flares inside me, like I’ve won her hand in jousting.
“Yes, I know,” he says, reading me, “not a bad deal for you. But it is for me. I’ll be fired otherwise.”
“Something tells me you’d rather lose your job than lose Kat,” I say begrudgingly.
“You know I’m nothing if not loyal, Brom,” he concedes. “And nothing if not possessive.” He pauses. “But while I don’t intend on stopping with Kat, I do think it’s worth keeping it a secret and continuing to work here. There’s something terrible happening at this school, something I can’t even wrap my head around. But I feel like the students are at risk.”
“You feel or you know?”
“Both,” he says slowly. “Leona told me I’m needed to protect them. From what, I don’t know and she didn’t say. But it did lead to talk of Goruun. Who, it turns out, is a deity linked to their coven.”
“A fucking deity?” I repeat. I close my eyes and try to remember exactly what Sarah had said to me when I was still half-possessed. “Help us bring Goruun’s wishes to life,” I repeat her words quietly. “Help us usher in a new age.”
“Does this new age have anything to do with the end of the world?” Crane ventures.
My eyes fly open. “Not that I know of. She only said I had to take what was owed to me and go get her daughter. Perhaps I read into that wrong. Maybe I’m not meant to marry Kat on behalf of this Goruun.”
“Or maybe you’re meant to get her pregnant,” Crane says, his voice like iron. “And the marriage is ceremonial. I don’t know. But I can tell you this much: regardless if we exile that Hessian from you sooner or later, I still don’t think your cock should go anywhere near her. Not for the sake of Kat’s safety but because this is what they want. And you have to wonder why that is.”
He’s right. I fucking hate that he’s right but he is.
“I’ll be careful,” I tell him.
He grabs my face and gives my jaw a sharp, painful squeeze as his eyes bore into mine. “You are not to fucking touch her,” he growls at me, holding me tight. “Not unless it’s for the ritual, not unless it’s under my supervision. Understood?”