Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
He brought a handkerchief to her face and dabbed away the worst of the catastrophe. She had no idea how long she’d been crying, but her head was pounding, and her nose was running. She took the white square of cloth from him and blew her nose, certain she was a hot mess. That didn’t seem to matter to him in the least.
Gorya tipped her face up to his, kissed her wet eyes and then the tip of her nose before making his way to the corners of her mouth. “Did you really think I would ever let you go now that I’ve found you, Maya? I would never survive without you. Never.”
“But Gorya.” She tried her best to explain to him. He didn’t seem to understand the problem. He kept looking at her as if she was his world. “No matter how much I love you, and I do, I can’t do this. I want to, I want to. For you. For Wraith and Rogue, but I’m not ready for a physical relationship. It’s too soon. I’ll lose my mind.”
He framed her face with his palms, his eyes holding her captive with that same look of complete love. “I know you’re not ready. This isn’t the way I want our first time to be. It should be our time together. You and me. Making love. Not a crazy leopard’s heat. That’s Rogue and Wraith. Their time. This is for them.”
“But my body is on fire.” She had to protest, to point out the obvious. She couldn’t keep the despair from her voice or her mind where he could feel and hear it. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. How could she not? She did love him, but he wasn’t making sense. This was a shifter’s inevitable nature. Neither of them could stop it. “Your body is just as inflamed as mine. I can feel how much you need me.”
“I’ve always had discipline and control, Maya. It has only grown stronger over the years. I realized I was born to be your partner, and that discipline was needed for this very reason. I have no doubt about it.”
She could tell he wanted to assure her as his thumb slid gently over her lower lip. Gorya’s voice was absolutely calm. His mind was penetrating the utter chaos of hers and helping to steady her further. She still couldn’t think as clearly as she would have liked. She couldn’t find solutions, and yet he seemed to feel there were answers for their very major problem.
Her eyes searched his. “You know this is Wraith’s first real awakening in her heat. She’ll rise with even more heat at least once or twice more before she’s completely ready.”
He nodded, a faint smile curving his mouth.
He wasn’t getting it. She rubbed at the darker bristles along his jaw. “Each time will be worse than this one.”
“I’m well aware, Maya. And prepared. I’ve come up with a plan.”
Her eyelashes fluttered. She could so easily let herself get caught up in his illusions, but then if she did, how could she save him? Save Rogue? Or even Wraith? “I love every single thing you’ve said to me, Gorya. I know it’s all true. You’re the strongest man I know. But you can’t overcome nature. No one can. It’s impossible.”
Again he dipped his head and brushed kisses over her mouth as if he found her irresistible. “Nothing is impossible when it’s the two of us. We were born with gifts, Maya. We are lucky that way. Amazing, astounding gifts, but we weren’t the only ones.”
He nuzzled the top of her head. “I’ve had quite a lot of time to think about things while you’ve been recovering from this wound. We aren’t alone in this relationship. It’s new to us, and neither of us has any idea what we’re doing, but it’s ours and we have the trust we decided to give to each other. What we both left out, or at least I did, was that there are four of us here, not just two. Rogue and Wraith are of equal importance.”
She leaned out away from him to look at him once more. This time, much of the despair was gone, replaced by interest. She wasn’t certain where he was going with this, but he was right, she hadn’t thought about including the leopards other than that they needed protection. What was Gorya considering?
“The two of them have been with us every step of our lives, through every phase, no matter how traumatic. Every triumph. Every kill. They brought us together when we would never have come together. You would have run, and I would have let you. We were both too broken to believe we had a chance at a life with each other. Rogue and Wraith believed in us.”