Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
I don’t do any of it.
It feels cliché to say today changed things. It didn’t. It can’t. Except . . . I get him a little better than I did before. I see him clearer.
I want him more.
I wait for the dead of night, and then I slip out of the castle using a different door than I did before. It doesn’t matter. I’m certain I can feel his eyes on me. I don’t head toward the lake—there’s not even a hint of an exit route that direction—but to the fields in the east. It’s a garbage tactical decision when my pursuer can take to the air.
I look over my shoulder into the sky, but it’s too dark, and the cloud cover hides everything from view. He could be directly overhead and I would never know it, not until he dived down and took me. Anticipation curls through me. Unforgivable, and yet it’s the truth. I pick up my pace until I’m jogging over the uneven ground. The tree line is to my right, but I’m not prepared to go there yet. The forest is all but impossible to navigate in the dark, and I don’t relish the idea of being caught in those webs again.
This is so foolish, I can’t even put it into words. What am I doing?
My only answer is a faint whistling sound. I barely register it at first. Then my instincts catches up to my brain, and I sprint toward the trees. It’s already too late.
Between one step and the next, rough hands hook under my armpits and wrench me into the air. The ground disappears beneath my feet as Bram cuts upward. Then the motherfucker tosses me, and I’m weightless for one horrifying breath before he catches me in his arms. At first, I think he might have done it to get a better grip on me, but as he turns for the castle, he does it again. He drops me, letting me fall for several seconds, then catches me again and takes us higher. Only to repeat the process again. Through it all, I don’t scream. I can’t tell if I’m afraid or furious or, gods help me, turned on.
I still don’t have an answer when he dives through a large window toward the top of the castle. I’m shaking, and I can’t seem to stop. There’s no way my legs will hold me. They don’t have to. Bram tosses me onto his bed and plasters a massive hand on my chest when I start to sit up. “I told you the consequences of your actions.”
Yeah, he really did. Knowing that I chose this is somehow all the more humiliating. I shouldn’t have been looking forward to the moment when he caught me and dragged me back. And yet here I am, thighs pressed together, breathlessly waiting to see what he’ll do next.
Wait, what am I doing? I saw how he reacted in the bath, and I know how I felt the moment I took control. Who’s to say I can’t do that now?
He’s dressed much the same as he has been since I met him, his stony skin mostly bare except for a loincloth sort of thing wrapped around his hips. After the chance to get acquainted with his cock last night, the possibilities of those ridges made me lose sleep. In fact, he’s so hard, I can clearly see the ridges outlined against the fabric of the loincloth. First things first, though. I sit up. “The birth control pendant?”
“So eager for my cock, aren’t you?” He moves away from the bed. His wing lashes out, and the spur catches something on a nearby dresser that I hadn’t noticed before. He tosses it in my lap. It’s exactly what I imagined it would be: a pendant on a chain with some arcane writing on it that I can’t decipher. Back in my realm, there are a thousand and one magical ways to magically ensure no pregnancy occurs during sexual encounters. And they all have fewer side effects than prescription medication.
This could be a trap.
“How does it work?”
He doesn’t move. He doesn’t seem to even breathe. “You need a little of your blood to activate it and key it to you. After that, as long as you’re wearing it, you can’t conceive.”
I wait for the catch, but he doesn’t say anything else. He doesn’t have to. As I search his aura, I find not even the slightest hint of deception. That doesn’t mean it’s not there, but if Bram is a liar, he’s the best I’ve ever met. My instincts are rarely incorrect when it comes to identifying threats, and if Bram is a threat, it’s not because he’s trying to trap me.
He hasn’t bothered to hide what he wants, and though he orchestrated this devil’s bargain between us when I was under duress, that doesn’t mean I’m not willing. Quite the contrary. I’ve all but waved a red flag in front of him and demanded he chase me.