Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“You better stop it,” I said, stepping under the water that was also far warmer than usual. “He doesn’t belong to me, and he shouldn’t. I’m no good for him.”
Ice-cold water followed that statement, and I shrieked. It warmed up instantly.
Apparently, the house wanted him there and didn’t like my defeatist attitude.
But the thing was, if I let down all my walls and opened for him only to find out that my life was too much for him…I might not recover. And really, how else could that go?
I was the steward of Corvus, and that was a lifetime commitment. I couldn’t move with him if he wanted to go. I couldn’t even be away from the land for more than a week at a time. It simply wasn’t possible. No one wanted to be tied to such an unexciting place, and this was what I was offering. Guardianship of a doorway to other realms, cue the fanfare. Who didn’t want to simply live in my little house with me for the rest of their life? It sounded fantastic.
And yet…when I’d woken up, he was drying one of the Cŵn Annwn, which should not have been possible. The dogs were not, as a rule, corporeal. Could they hunt? Yes. Fight? Of course. Be hurt? No. Not in their spectral form. The fact that they’d made themselves flesh and blood, merely, as far as I could tell, for Lorne’s benefit, was mind-boggling. Of course when they did it, I had to protect them from Rulaine, but the question was, why did they put themselves in harm’s way to begin with? Was it just so Lorne could interact with them? I could always see them, it was one of my gifts, but why him?
“Not to mention,” I said to the ether, “why the hell was Gwyn wet?” In her spectral form, she couldn’t be wet, but she had decided to let the rain soak her so the man had to dry her off and then brush her. It was like the dogs and the house both wanted his attention. Not that I could blame them. I wanted his attention too.
“Okay,” he announced, and suddenly there he was, naked. “I’m coming in.”
I was certain I whimpered.
“No?”
“Yes, please,” I barely got out with my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth.
I had thought him beautiful with his clothes on. I’d had no idea. The sleek, tawny skin stretched for miles over carved, thick muscles, broad shoulders, and a wide chest. His dark eyes were locked on me, and seeing the desire there, the hunger, made me catch my breath.
He opened the shower door, and then he was crowded up against me in seconds, his arms wrapped around me before he bent and his hot mouth was on mine, demanding submission, staking his claim. If he’d spoken the words, I would have answered yes, screamed the word Yes! I was his. Scared or not, uncertain or not, I had to keep him for as long as I could. And if he woke in the morning and ran, I would have this to remember. The one and only man I’d trusted with my life, my home, my body.
When he stepped back, I swayed on my feet, and then I heard the low, filthy chuckle. My eyes snapped open. He was pouring soap into his hands.
“What’re you doing?” I moaned. “Have me.”
“We’re going to wash all the dirt and mud off you.”
Reaching out, I took hold of his cock, which was long and thick and gorgeous, and it hardened in my hand as I stroked him.
“Knock it off,” he husked, taking a deep breath, those bottomless deep-blue eyes of his all I could see as he slid free of my grip. “You will allow me to care for you so that together we can get into that big bed of yours.”
“Yes, but—”
“I want you so bad,” he said, hands in my hair, massaging my scalp, pushing the homemade shampoo through the tangled mane that fell to the middle of my back. “But I want the closeness first. I want the trust I deserve, the faith I need, and for you to let me in.”
“Oh, you can be in now,” I growled at him.
He ignored my offer. “I’m crazy about you. Do you understand? You drive me insane, and do you have any idea how long I’ve waited for that? To care enough to want to strangle someone?”
“You have murder on your mind?” I asked, closing my eyes and letting my head tip back, surrendering myself to him.
“You talk a lot. Do you know that?”
“The other night, before Argos found us, I wanted to be closer, but that wasn’t what you wanted. You didn’t want me.”
“For a smart man, you can be really stupid,” he murmured. “I always want you, but that was crazy. And then the cat was there, which was almost surreal, and…nothing made sense. It felt like my world flipped upside down.”