Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“Are you saying you can do all that?” Penny put a hand on her hip.
“Oh yes, sweetheart, I can keep you safe. And heal you, if I have to.” He looked so confident that Penny couldn’t help asking,
“How?”
“Thanks to my Kru’ell One side, I’m immune to most poisons,” V’rex told her. “And I can transfer that immunity to you by stinging you.”
“You mean with your tongue?” Penny looked at him askance. His tongue had gone back to normal after the little display he’d put on, but she was still scared of the weird, needle-like appendage it could become.
“Yeah. With my stinger.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, as though this was no big deal.
“But if you, er, stung me again would you have to make me, you know…come?” Penny asked uneasily.
V’rex frowned.
“Afraid so, sweetheart. I can’t sting a female without giving her orgasms. What do you have against sexual pleasure, anyway?”
“I don’t have anything against it as long as I’m expecting it and I’ve given my consent for it,” Penny snapped. “You can’t just go around making people come without asking first! It’s as bad as rape. Well, maybe not quite,” she backpedaled quickly. “But it’s close.”
“Fine,” V’rex growled, looking irritated. “I give you my word as a Kindred and a warrior, I won’t sting you again—or make you come again—without your permission. But if we’re running for our lives and it’s a choice between dying an agonizing death by poison or enduring an unwanted orgasm from me, I hope you’d pick the orgasm over the poison.”
“Of course I would,” Penny said, frowning. “I think that goes without saying. I just don’t want you sneaking up on me and poking me with your tongue when I’m not expecting it and I didn’t ask for it.”
V’rex shook his head.
“Prickly little thing, aren’t you? Don’t worry, sweetheart—I gave you my word not to sting you again without your permission and I don’t break my word.” He stabbed a finger at her. “But you are going to have to get a whole hell of a lot better at pretending we’re really fucking during the Mandatory Breeding Hour every day.”
Penny frowned.
“You really think it’s that important for me to pretend to be, uh, into it?” she asked, feeling her cheeks heat as she remembered the extremely realistic simulation of sex the big Hybrid have given earlier.
“Hell yes, I do!” V’rex growled. “They already know that I’m not susceptible to their Goddess-damned hypno-whispers and after your little performance at the Unification Ceremony, I’m sure they have their doubts about you, too. So we need to act the part of a happy couple fucking each other’s brains out every night—can’t give them any reason to suspect we’re not being good little breeders and trying our best to get you pregnant.”
“I’ll try…” Penny bit her lip. “I’m mostly worried about what they’ll do to me when I don’t turn up pregnant. I know they suspend the awful womb exams for a little while after the Unification Ceremony but eventually I’m going to get called back into the Breeding and Conception Center and they’ll find out I don’t have a bun in the oven.”
“A bun in the oven?” He barked a laugh. “My people used to say a ‘chick in the egg.’”
“Your people?” Penny asked curiously. “The Kru’ell Ones?”
The amusement fell off his face at once to be replaced by a dark look.
“Hell, no. Those were my father’s people. I might have half his blood, but I don’t claim that bastard’s culture as my heritage. I was talking about my mother—she was a Beast Kindred.”
“Oh…okay.” Penny simply nodded, since this seemed to be a sore subject for him. “Anyway, I think we need to try and get away before I have to do another exam and they find out I’m not pregnant,” she said, steering the conversation back to more relevant—and hopefully calmer—waters.
“Agreed.” He frowned. “Which means I have to find some way of getting the Master Control away from the GL.” He tapped the shiny silver pain square at the side of his neck. “If I don’t, this little bastard will fell me like a fucking tree the minute I try to cross over the Compound’s perimeters.”
“But…how are we going to do that?” Penny objected.
“I don’t know—he keeps the damn thing on him all the fucking time.” V’rex shook his head. “I’d have to get close enough to him to pick his pocket—which I could do. I spent some time on the streets after my mother died and my father disowned me. But I don’t know if the ‘Glorious Leader’ would let me get close enough to snatch the Master Control.” He winked at Penny. “I’m not exactly the ragged little urchin I was back in the day when I could slip a diamond ring right off a female’s finger without her even noticing.”