Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Of course, his kids were a different story. I still needed to call Amy and Chris Junior, but hopefully word hadn’t gotten to them yet. I should have some time later on that morning. If it was morning…
Thwack…Thwack…Thwack…
The sound intruded again and it was followed by a low moan that sounded like it was half pleasure/half pain. What was that?
Rolling over again, I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. I looked around, trying to find where the strange noise was coming from. And then I saw where my guys had gone.
Sel and Krynn were standing across from the bed against the far wall together, but at first I didn’t understand what they were doing. Krynn was face-first against the blue and white marble wall, bracing himself with his hands. His head was bowed and his wings were spread wide, showing their full, gorgeous expanse of blue and gold. The space between them—the area along his spine where I had seen the white scars—was now streaked with blue.
I frowned to myself—what were the blue streaks on his back? And why was Seldarin standing there behind him and slightly to one side?
Then I saw Sel take a step forward and raise what looked like a whip. He brought it down hard—right on the exposed area of Krynn’s back between his wings.
“Ahh…Gods!” Krynn gasped and stiffened, obviously in pain. A new, blue stripe appeared on his naked, unprotected back where the whip had hit him.
Suddenly I realized what I was seeing—the blue dripping down the lighter Fae’s back was blood! For some reason Sel was beating Krynn—hurting him and making him bleed!
Without thinking, I put out a hand and pointed at the big Fae.
“Stop!” I shouted and a bolt of electricity sizzled from my fingertips and struck Seldarin’s arm, which was already raised for the next blow.
“Fuck!” he gasped and dropped the whip he’d been holding to grab at his arm. “What the hell?” he exclaimed.
But I was already out of bed and rushing over to them.
“What did you do?” I demanded, examining Krynn’s bleeding back. “Why would you hurt him that way?”
“The fuck, Princess?” Sel turned to me, his bronze eyes blazing. “Did you just shock me?”
I wasn’t sure what I had done or how I had done it but that wasn’t the most important thing right now.
“You hurt him—you were beating him!” I exclaimed, pointing to Krynn’s bloody back. “You bastard! How could you do that to your best friend?”
“It’s all right, my Lady—really it is.”
Krynn turned around to face me, folding his wings down as he did. To my surprise, I saw that his green eyes looked like they had when he was strapped to the Quenching chair—half-lidded and almost drugged with lust. His pupils were dilated and he spoke slowly, as though it was an effort to get the words out.
“It’s all right,” he repeated. “I asked him to do it.”
“You asked him to beat you?” I demanded, frowning in confusion. “Why?”
“It’s his Needing—the cycle is coming to a peak.” Sel was still rubbing his arm. Though I hadn’t broken the skin, there was a white mark on his greenish-platinum skin.
“What Needing? What are you talking about?” I shook my head. Both of them had mentioned “the Needing” several times, but they had never fully explained it.
“It’s a magical disease—a sexually transmitted one.” Krynn still seemed to be struggling to speak. He looked at Seldarin pleadingly. “Sel, tell her—please?”
The big Fae sighed and nodded.
“All right. It’s a disease that makes you crave pain and humiliation—you feel it as a sexual pleasure,” he explained. “It runs in cycles and when a Needer’s cycle reaches a peak, they have to be hurt or sexually dominated in some way or they can get really sick.”
“You’re saying this is some kind of disease?” I demanded, still trying to understand. “You were hurting him because he has a disease?”
“Well, I can’t fuck him,” Sel growled, looking uncomfortable. “Which is how Needers usually get their fix—through rough or submissive sex.”
“They do?” I looked at Krynn. “Did you ask Sel to…to fuck you?”
He nodded, looking half-ashamed, but still drugged with lust.
“The pain of taking him would be—”
“Too fucking much,” Seldarin said firmly. “You know I’m too big for you to take, Krynn. And besides, I don’t fucking go that way. You’re my best friend and I’d do almost anything to help you, but there has to be a line somewhere.”
“I know. I wouldn’t go that way either if I didn’t have the Needing…at least I don’t think I would.” Krynn shook his head. “I’ve had it for so long now, I can’t be sure of anything. Lady Elgiana infected me years ago, when I was her servant.”
“She infected you on purpose?” I asked. The Needing sounded like some form of bizarre magical sexual masochism. I still didn’t understand how that kind of kink was catching, though.