Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“I need you more than any of them. I can’t exist without you. The beautiful and sweet crown prince of Gaoxing has become my moon and sun. You are bird song and summer breezes. You are my everything, and I refuse to live without you. I’ll happily die a hundred times rather than watch a drop of your blood spilled.”
He’d barely finished speaking when Jin launched himself into his arms. They were both talking utter nonsense, but it didn’t matter. Today’s shooting had been too close. As he held Jin tightly in his arms, feeling his slender body trembling with silent tears, he swore he was sorting this contract out now. There would be no more public appearances like that one. No more easy opportunities for someone to take shots at the crown prince or even Prince Jin Ming Tao.
As Jin’s breathing evened out, West put a little space between them. He directed Jin over to his stool and finished unraveling the mess Jin had made of his tie. Without a word, he removed his crown from around his touji and took his hair down.
“You called me baby today. For the second time,” Jin stated in a low voice, his red-rimmed eyes finding West’s in the mirror.
“I did.”
“You also called me by my given name today. For the first time.”
At that, West sighed. He frowned at the top of Jin’s head as he smoothed out that sleek fall of black hair. “I did.”
“And that makes you upset?”
“I was waiting. I wanted it to be special. The first time I called you anything other than Dianxia was supposed to be in bed.”
When they finally made love.
No one could call the prince anything other than Dianxia, except for his brother and father. West had wanted it to be in a special moment when he claimed that rarified right.
But as he’d held Jin to him on that stage, both of them waiting for the bullet to strike, fearful that this might be their very last moment, West couldn’t wait any longer. His Long Wei needed to know the impossible had happened. West had fallen in love.
Jin tilted his head back so that it rested in the palm of West’s hand. “Then take me to bed and say it now. I want to hear it repeatedly.”
Taking the prince’s hand, West pulled him to his feet. He released his hand to wrap his arm around his waist and draw him in close while threading the fingers of his other hand through the hair at the base of his neck. Their lips found each other so easily in a long, deep kiss.
His prince didn’t need to say a word. He could taste it on his tongue, feel it in his embrace, hear it in the needy, desperate noises that slipped from his throat. Jin Long Wei loved him. It didn’t matter if it was too fast or if it didn’t make any sense.
Jin was his. Would always be his. Even if fate decided they couldn’t be together, he knew the only one who would ever have his heart was Jin Long Wei.
As the kiss dragged on, it grew hungrier and more desperate. Days of trying to behave combined with their close encounter with an assassin snapped what little restraint they might have had. Fingers tugged at shirts and pants until buttons flew across the room and seams ripped. Jin’s bare chest touched his own, and a moan filled the room. West wasn’t sure which of them it had come from.
They stumbled their way across the room, shedding clothes and sucking on whatever bit of flesh they could reach until they fell onto the bed with a bounce.
Jin’s laugh broke the silence of the room and it was like a weight had lifted from his heart. Jin was his sunshine, his bright star in a black sky. When Jin laughed, West could breathe.
Somehow, West wound up on his back with Jin hovering over him, his long black hair falling like a curtain around them, but it wasn’t enough to hide the smile that glowed on his swollen lips.
“I finally have you,” Jin declared. “Now I can do despicable things to you.”
West rested his hands above his head and sighed. “Oh, no! What ever will I do? How can I possibly escape?”
Jin snickered and straddled his hips while grabbing both of his wrists to pin them against the rumbled blankets. “You’re never going to escape. I’m going to chain you to my bed.”
With a smirk, West dug his heels into the mattress and pushed, rolling so that Jin was on the bottom. “You mean something like this, baby?”
His eyelids fluttered shut and this look of pure bliss filled his features, as if being called “baby” was the best thing in the entire world. West lowered his head and nuzzled Jin’s neck, kissing and licking his way across flawless, pale skin.