Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 803(@200wpm)___ 642(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
My throat swells, the guilt suffocating. “A safe place. I wasn’t anywhere bad.”
Seconds pass, and when I don’t think he’s going to answer and I’m going to pass out by the tight invisible hold he has on me, he lifts his hand to my face, the cushion of his thumb kindling the edge of my lip. “If you’re not with me, Madness, everywhere is bad.”
The world as I know tilts by the power of his words. How can darkness be so hauntingly sweet? As if death himself needed a reason to breathe.
“They’re words, Madness…” he whispers, snapping me out of my trance. Am I weakening that much around him that I can’t even hide my emotions? His fingers crawl to the back of my neck. “They don’t mean anything.”
I don’t kiss him back when his lips brush mine. Not when he nibbles along the edge of my jaw, but when his hand finds my thigh and the linen of my dress slides between us, my legs part slightly, my tongue swiping against his.
The skin on the back of my neck tightens as he forces me further into his kiss. It’s a torturous ballad, one that rhymes with death and love. Lifting me by my hips, he places me on top of his lap, my knees sinking into the leather as I chase the hard line of his shaft. Images of last night flick behind my eyes as his touch stings the same way it did then. Butterflies explode in my belly as if they’ve swallowed gunpowder, leaving the taste of coins stuck to my throat.
“See this?” I almost moan, that’s how good it feels to hear the laze of his voice. With a circle, he plays with the new cut beneath my skirt. The one he so bravely made last night. “You know what it means?”
He’s so close that I taste every word against my lips. The chisel of his features distracts from the beast that lurks beneath the surface.
I shake my head.
He smirks, sending quivers down my spine. “It means you’re mine. Madness and all.” Before I can say another word, he catches my lips with his and deepens the kiss with a turn of his face.
Burying my hand into the thick mane of his hair, I force it back until his lips are off mine. It’s bittersweet because he’s an addiction I never want to cure. In a natural hue of candy pink, his lips curve, setting fire to every organ inside my body.
Focus. I must stay focused.
I smile sweetly, shifting the loose strand that falls over his forehead. “If you’re going to start announcing me as your wife, you don’t get to play with your little toys anymore.”
His head hits an angle that accentuates all the pretty angles the Devil decided to grace him with.
“The girl from the party?” His brow rises. “Answer me something.” He turns serious a moment, his hands disappearing from my body. “Is she still alive?”
“No.”
I’m confused. And I don’t like the way my chest squeezes all the air out of my lungs every second his hands aren’t on me.
They land back on my thigh, and I relax.
Ridiculous.
He leaves a trail of fire in his path when he slides them up further. “So you’ve answered your own question.”
“That doesn’t mean anything anymore…” I say the words before I can shove them back down my throat.
“Oh?” He’s mocking me. “How so?”
My stomach dips when I notice the way he’s looking at me. “Because I am too.”
He rolls his eyes, his fingers dipping beneath my underwear. “You don’t count.”
“How so?” He directs my hips over the bulge in his jeans the same way I’d ride him.
He clears his throat and rests against his chair. As if relishing in my torment, there’s a deliberate slowness in the time it takes for him to answer.
“Because you’re the canvas, Luna. No longer the artist.” His mouth is back on mine, the strap to my dress sailing over my shoulder. My heart doesn’t know what to do as it rattles against the cage in my chest.
Sucking my nipple into his mouth, I don’t notice him untying the ribbon from my hair until it’s looped around my throat.
Tugging him out of his jeans, the shiver that rolls through me is potent enough to make my head spin when my fingers curl around his smooth skin.
He jerks on the ribbon, gesturing to his cock. “Spit.”
I lean back, saliva rolling over my tongue, before aiming my spit down at him. Using my thumb, I circle it over the rim while being careful to watch his cues. In all my years of knowing this man, I’ve never seen him more normal than he looks right now.
“Ride me.” His words set fire to my world as I roll my hips over him, gasping when he fills me to the brim. Inch by inch, my body takes him as if made to do so.