Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88279 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88279 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Yes.” Beast sets it on the counter and spins it to face us. “The Sea Witch sends her regards, apparently.”
I read the flowing script and then reread a second and third time.
Congratulations on your reconciliation with the little princess. It would be a shame for such an epic love story to end in anything other than a happily ever after.
On the surface, it looks like a friendly overture, but I know better.
It’s a flat-out threat.
Chapter 15
Gaeton
We manage to distract Isabelle until exhaustion takes hold and she passes out between us in bed. She looks younger and more relaxed in sleep, her chest rising and falling in an even rhythm. Less formidable somehow. We worked her hard today, hard enough that I should be passed out right next to her. I’m tired right down to my bones, but it has barely taken the edge off my need for her. I’ve always liked to fuck, but it’s on a different level with this woman.
With both of them.
I can admit that to myself even if I’d walk through fire before I admit it to Beast. It feels natural to trade dominance back and forth between the two of us. And what happened this morning? It’s still got me twisted up. Having my mouth all over Beast was something I’ve wanted for longer than I’ll ever admit. He’s not for me. He never was.
That’s not what we need to talk about right now, though.
I pull the sheet up more firmly around Isabelle and lean back. “Ursa knows where we are.”
“It would seem so.” He sits against the headboard, his muscles shifting beneath his scarred skin. There’s a wealth of information in those scars, if one knows how to look. Shit he’s survived left people around him six feet under. He doesn’t need to tell me the stories, to put names and faces to the loss, for me to understand. I really don’t want to understand Beast, but that resistance gets weaker and weaker the more time we spend together. There was a point where I would have happily put a bullet between his eyes just to get him the fuck out of my way, but it’s been a long time since I felt that level of anger. It slipped away while I wasn’t paying attention, swept out to sea on a wave of grief and loss.
I push the thoughts away. There’s no time to drown in that grief right now, not the grief of losing Isabelle the first time and sure as fuck not the loss of Orsino Belmonte. “Is she warning us off or is she going to strike at us directly?”
“The latter is what I would do.” Beast isn’t looking at me, his eyes focused on something a thousand miles away. “We’re both damn good generals, but we represent more than that. Cordelia already has a handful of damn good generals who could ensure she didn’t feel our loss too strongly. The Man in Black—” His voice hitches the tiniest amount. “Orsino left a strong and stable territory when he died. Strong enough to survive the changeover to his daughter and give her time to settle in.” He finally looks at me. “Or it would have been if we hadn’t left.”
He’s right. There are other generals, but we’re different. We’re symbols of a sort. Two men with reputations that stretch the distance of the city and give pause to anyone who considers crossing us. If we hadn’t walked out … But we did, and now we have to deal with the consequences.
I drag a hand through my hair. “Did you know how little time he had left?” I knew he was sick. Everyone knew he was sick. But up until three days before he died, he was sitting in a meeting with the two of us just like he had a thousand times before. He’d looked frailer than normal, but he hadn’t breathed a single fucking word to let me know that he was that close to the end.
“No. He didn’t tell me, either.” His voice is perfectly devoid of emotion. Once, I thought that meant Beast didn’t feel a damn thing. Now I know better. He feels just as deeply as I do. He just hides it better.
“I thought we had months left, years even. The last treatment seemed like it was working.” My chest feels like someone dug a hole in it and forgot to toss me into my grave. That man was not perfect, and there were days when I hated him, but he was as close to a father figure as I’ve ever had. “I couldn’t stay there. I just needed some fucking time to work shit out.”
“It felt like the walls were closing in.” He speaks so softly, I can’t tell if the words are meant for me or himself. Beast tilts his head back against the headboard and looks at the ceiling. “It was like losing Cohen all over again; different, but the same, too.”