Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
The fire crackled in the silence. The nighttime sounds of the forest were audible. The cracking of branches. The hoots of an owl. The wind through the leaves. It was the sound of silence—and it was so heavy.
“For the last one hundred and fifty years, I’ve amended my relationship with the First King. I’ve pretended to embrace my new life as Necrosis. I’ve followed all his orders, even the ones that made me sick. But I’ve been biding my time, waiting for the right moment when I could save us both.” He suddenly rose to his feet and stepped away, his visage hidden in shadow as his backside was lit up by the glow of the flames. He departed the campsite and took refuge behind a tree, withdrawing from me and the conversation.
I remained behind, swamped by the burden of despair. My heart hadn’t felt this heavy since I’d thought we were doomed to be defeated by Necrosis. It was the kind of hopelessness that I could taste on my tongue, could feel in the pit of my stomach. The more I got to know Bastian, the more I realized he was just as human as I was.
I left the campfire and approached him where he stood. He leaned against a tree, his arms crossed over his chest, one foot planted against the trunk. His eyes were forward through the opening in the trees to the empty plains ahead, ignoring me beside him.
I stared at the side of his face, a face that was tight in a blank expression.
“I’m sorry.”
It was as if I wasn’t even there.
Now it all made sense, why he paid so much attention to my relationship with my brothers, why he was so adamant about Ian’s blessing before we left. My hand instinctively reached for his arm. My fingers touched the thick muscles before taking note of the surprising amount of warmth. A lot of heat for someone who wasn’t technically alive.
The second he felt me, his face tilted slightly, giving me a look.
I could see the heartbreak in his eyes despite all his efforts to hide it. I could feel the pain radiating from him like heat from a fire. I could feel the despair as if it were a void inside my own chest. It made me reach for him like it was a cure for the pain, like I needed to console myself rather than comfort him.
My hand cupped his face as I moved in and pressed a kiss to his mouth. The second we made contact, the thick arms in front of his chest dropped, and they circled my waist instead. His big hands spanned the small of my back, and he tugged me close, bringing my chest to the top of his stomach.
His mouth didn’t just reciprocate my kiss. It devoured it. I’d made the first move, but he quickly took the lead, parting my lips with his before releasing a deep breath into my mouth. His hands tightened on my little body, and after he turned his head slightly to change the orientation of our mouths, he gave me some of his tongue, expertly executed.
My fingers felt the coarse hair of his chin, savored the taste of his lips. I was wrapped in the arms of a man who could eat my soul at any second, but the fear never took hold, not when this felt like oblivion.
One hand dug into my hair next, while his other arm wrapped around me and pulled me flush to his hard body, my stomach right against the distinct outline of his dick inside his pants. It was clearly intentional, wanting me to know that he was just as capable as a living man, that he was big enough to make me forget every other man who had been inside me.
Damn, he was a good kisser.
Our breaths were heavy, and soon they turned into quiet moans as we grabbed on to each other with desperation. The kiss was spontaneous with no ulterior motive, but now things were moving fast, so fast that I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up buck naked against that tree with his big dick between my legs.
Then it stopped.
He was the one who withdrew, who took away the fuel that fed our inferno. He looked away for a second, as if he couldn’t look me in the eye and face what had just happened. His hands left my body, and with every new withdrawal, I felt even colder. “That can’t happen again.”
It was like being slapped in the face with a brick of ice. “What…?”
“Let’s go to bed.” He stepped away from the tree and headed back to the campfire. “We have a long day tomorrow.”
I stood there as I watched him walk away, still shocked by how quickly it started and ended. “Who kisses someone and then just stops?”