Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
But since then?
I haven’t had to fight for anything, aside from squashing a handful of squabbles and power grabs over the years.
Claiming this woman glaring at me with large dark eyes will be a battle. It doesn’t matter that I have no intention of keeping Aurora. She’s an itch I haven’t been able to scratch, a thorn in my paw for years. If I can just purge this woman from my system, then I can go back to my carefully ordered life. I’ve worked hard to create balance, and my heady desire for Aurora disrupts that balance.
She’s beautiful. She possesses the kind of perfect features that everyone recognizes as the standard to be strained toward: high cheekbones, full lips, big eyes, and flawless light-brown skin. Her body is just more of the same perfection. She’s short and built soft. Not quite curvy, but she’s got a figure that says she doesn’t spend too much time worrying about achieving a model-thin look. I like it. A lot. Her breasts are high and tipped with brown nipples that have shiny silver barbells through them, and her waist draws my eye down to hips just made to be grabbed.
There’s a reason she’s the favorite of everyone who’s ever come into the Underworld, and her face and body are only half of the equation. The rest is the sunny disposition she shines at everyone…except me.
Ever since that first scene right after she started working in the Underworld, Aurora’s never been anything but coldly polite when she’s forced to interact with me. It shouldn’t bother me. I don’t want the girl, and no matter what the other fools in this city seem to think, she’s not one for keeping.
Now she’s mine for two full weeks. The thought fills me with a vicious delight, a feeling akin to my younger years, when I’d step into the ritual combat ring on Lammas.
I can’t think about Lammas now. Can’t think about what my sister has allowed to happen. There’s nothing I can do, and the helplessness I’m not used to feeling is why I contracted Aurora in the first place. She’s a distraction to keep me from doing something unforgivable.
She’s practically quivering from a combination of anger and anticipation. I’ve allowed my thoughts to wander long enough. It’s time to get down to business. I cross to her and catch her chin with my fingers, digging my nails in just enough to make her flinch. “You have the terrible habit of trying to top from the bottom.”
“I don’t,” she grits out.
“If I want you to speak, I’ll ask you a question. You most certainly do top from the bottom.” I’ve spent far too many hours watching her play in public, studying her interactions with the other Dominants. They indulge her new bratty behavior. They flat-out indulge her. “You have them all wrapped around your pretty finger. Does it get boring? Never having to wonder what will happen next because you already know?”
She blinks up at me. I’m only a few inches taller than her, but the heels give me extra height. Aurora licks her lips. “You would like to pretend you’re special, wouldn’t you? Just because you’ve spent years watching me doesn’t mean you know me, Malone.”
“Such a mouth on you,” I murmur. I can’t quite resist dragging my thumb over her full bottom lip. “You won’t provoke me into doing what you want.”
“If you say so.”
The challenge she presents thrills me to my very soul. It’s been so long since I had to work for something, for someone. When you’re queen—or what passes for it in my territory—people are all too willing to offer you everything you could ever dream of. It’s enough to tempt a person to flirt with war just to alleviate the boredom.
Yes, Aurora will do nicely.
“Your safe word.”
“Thorn.” She practically snarls it.
I permit myself a cold smile. “For your insolence, you won’t be permitted to orgasm tonight. Please me well during this scene and I’ll lift the ban in the morning. Keep up this bratty behavior and I’ll extend it.” At her shock, I almost laugh. “It’s really simple, Aurora. Be a good girl, obey, and you’ll be rewarded.”
She stares. “You’d really deny me for the next two weeks, wouldn’t you?”
I don’t want to. The desire to bring Aurora to orgasm, over and over again, is like a sickness in my blood. I crave this woman in a way that made me wary enough to avoid her for years. But if I give an inch on this battlefield, she’ll take a mile.
“Yes.”
She gives another of those aggravated breaths that thrill a dark part of me. “In that case…” She smiles, as bright as a sunny morning. “I bow to your every will, Mistress.”
The smile is a lie, just like the submission is a lie. Oh, she’s submissive. There’s no doubting that. But Aurora spent years playing the sweet, biddable girl. The persona she’s settled into since taking over as Megaera’s second-in-command is closer to the truth, but it’s still an act. She’s been wearing a mask since she started working at the Underworld, and I want to know what lies beneath it.