Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 110080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110080 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Other combatants with shredded throats and missing appendages headed her way, many clutching the same orange bloom.
Not a trick, after all? Unless they were all in on it?
Deciding to risk it, Blythe flashed to the underground arena and presented her flower to Tonka.
“Son of a beast,” the harpy muttered. “You move on to round four. Yay.”
* * *
Roux thrust an arm into the air. Yes! Blythe had done it. She had obtained a queen of hearts flower and returned first. Others arrived soon after, and the horn blasted.
The harphantom immediately lifted her gaze, meeting his. A current of electricity arced between them, wild and sharp. Why did she appear so...desperate? Had something happened out there?
“Looks like your female survived,” Monna said. She stood with him at the edge of the dais.
He ignored her, appearing at Blythe’s side.
“Take me to our spot,” she pleaded.
Something had happened. Roux gathered her close in a hurry and returned her to the Oath Stones, where sunlight bathed the land, casting a vivid sheen over the sea of soft grass and glistening rock.
“Tell me.”
She slipped free and backed away. Opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened, closed. Then her shoulders rolled in, gutting him.
“Tell me.” A command.
Pale baby blues wide and wounded, she wrapped her arms around her waist, saying, “The harpy and the Phoenix helped me. Gave me the flower. I don’t know why. But before that...” Her eyelids narrowed. “You know what? No. Nothing else of importance happened out there. I’m not going to waste another moment of my life wishing for something I can’t have. I’m going to take what I want while I can.”
Motions jerky, she ripped off her top. “Strip, Astra. Let’s do this.” Her skirt hit the ground. She kicked off her boots and shed her weapons. Gloriously naked, she demanded, “Why aren’t you stripping?”
Because he didn’t understand her mood. Because her beauty had erased his wits. Because...he didn’t know why. “I never thought I’d say this, but we will talk before we do this.”
“I don’t want to talk.” She kicked his feet out from under him, and he let her do it. Let her dive on top of him and claim his lips in a mad kiss.
He kissed back because he couldn’t not kiss back. While his body hummed with frothing delight, his mind wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to be more to her than an outlet.
And he would be. Roux had learned enough about her to know she must be eased from whatever mood this was. He gentled his response and cupped her jawline. Applying the slightest pressure, he took control of the kiss. Reverence marked every brush of his lips and stroke of his tongue.
Her fervor tapered until she matched him stroke for stroke, brush for brush. Reverence for reverence.
With a groan, she lifted her head and pressed her brow to his. Clinging to him, she asked, “Why aren’t you out of your mind with passion?”
Roux rolled her over, pinning her to the grass with his weight. “Your Astra requires more romance. And he’s going to get it.”
Wrapping her arms around him, she molded her body to his and dragged a knee up and down his side. “My Astra. Roux.”
Those whispered words annihilated his defenses.
“That’s right. I’m yours, and you are mine.” With his hands free, he gripped the neckline of his shirt and yanked. “I should inspect what’s mine.”
“You should. Twice.”
He lowered his lips to hers and stole her breath. As she writhed beneath him, he kissed her jawline. The length of her throat. Lower. He tasted the sweetest peaks and most sumptuous hollows. Savored her cries of bliss and pleas for more. Relished the way she moved against him. Her sweet cries filled his ears, creating the most tantalizing music.
This. This was what he’d been created to do. Not to hurt or to inflict hurt, but to please this female. Through her pleasure, he found his own.
But the more he tasted, the more he wanted. Ever-sharpening desire lashed at his fraying control while frenzied desire burned at the fringes of his every thought. Sweat sheened his skin. Muscles pulled taut. Veins throbbed.
His palms, they tingled and heated. And heated. He expected to produce flames at any moment. Blythe didn’t seem to mind.
“Roux, I’m going to... I’m so close...” Her body jerked, and she screamed a sound of complete satisfaction.
He lifted his head from between her legs and licked his wet lips. His chest puffed up. His control frayed further. Climax looked good on her.
He should give her another one.
With a drunken smile, she rasped, “Get inside me, Roux.”
Yes. No. He fought the clawing need to obey. “No sex.” Not until she asked for it before they even started. For now, they could do something he’d imagined.
He jerked to his knees and lowered his zipper.
Her jaw dropped. What did she think of him?