Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97188 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 486(@200wpm)___ 389(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
I want to be anywhere else, but I force myself to sit still and silent as Maeve outlines our request. From the way Hyacinth goes still, it’s not a normal one. No surprise there. I haven’t encountered any other vampires in Threshold, so there’s no reason that a bite being part of the proposition would enter into anyone’s mind.
Hyacinth turns those seductive eyes my way. “Is it true? Your bite is orgasmic?”
“Yes.”
Maeve gives me a sharp look at the harshness of my tone, but I ignore it. She smiles up at Hyacinth. “What do you say?”
“You understand that this is not a normal request. I need to speak with the owner. We don’t typically do contracts for the night, but I suspect that she will want one for this instance. Are you agreeable to that?”
Maeve smiles, the very picture of sweetness. “Of course. Whatever works best.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Hyacinth rises gracefully and weaves through the tables to the bar, where a short woman in robes tends the drinks. The madam, obviously. I don’t get a chance to do more than glimpse her before Maeve is scooting her chair closer and leaning against me. “Stop glaring at everyone, or they’ll worry you’re going to murder her. If they tell us no, there will be no feeding, and we’ll be right back where we started.”
“Maybe that’s for the best.”
“Lizzie.” The snap in the word turns me to face her despite myself. I blink. She’s furious, her brows drawn together and the color high in her freckled cheeks. “Not too long ago, you told me to snap out of my self-pity. Now I’m doing the same to you. We can argue in circles about whether you intended to hurt me and what that means for the future—later. Right now, you need to feed, and Hyacinth is willing. So we’re going to go up to that room and you’re going to bite her and take just enough blood to sustain you and not hurt her. And then we’ll send her on her way, well paid and well satisfied. Do you understand me?”
Warmth blooms in my chest, coursing lower. I might love this woman. Soft and sweet, harsh and commanding. The very picture of contradictions. Right now, she’s willing to watch me with another person to ensure that my needs are met. She’s practically bullying me to make it happen.
I cup her face with my hand, drawing her closer. “I understand.”
Maeve opens her mouth as if she expected me to argue but stops short. She frowns. “Good. Well—”
“Just like I understand that if we’re paying for the room for the night, we will be utilizing it.”
She blinks those inky eyes at me. Her lips part, a perfect rosebud O. “What?”
“I don’t believe I need to repeat myself. Do I?” I stroke my thumb across her cheekbone and down to her jaw. It’s a tragedy that I haven’t had a chance to map the freckles on her body with my mouth. There hasn’t been time, or opportunity. After that first night, we could hardly stay locked away in the cabin of the Serpent’s Cry. The crew would have absolutely mutinied.
And what happened in the bath was just as frenzied.
“The crew is drinking themselves silly right now. In the morning, they’re going to be lazing about and moaning over their headaches. I have some thoughts about what happens next, but I need to speak with Alix and Rin first. If we stay in Drash for a few days, it will give us plenty of opportunity to ask our questions. But we don’t have to start tonight.”
I don’t think she quite realizes she’s leaning into my touch. This woman puts her trust in me again and again, despite the fact that I’ve proven, again and again, that I don’t deserve it. I’ve shared pleasure and comfort with past lovers, but even with the ones who cared about me the most, there was always a thread of fear. An awareness of our discrepancy in power. A knowledge that my true loyalties lay with my family and that if they ever came to a cross purpose, I would murder my partner without hesitation.
But not Maeve. She likely has the most to fear from me, and yet she insists on trusting me. It’s disconcerting in the extreme.
Hyacinth reappears, breaking the moment. She sinks into the chair across from us and plants her elbows on the table, all business. A reluctant thread of respect courses through me. It only grows when she speaks plainly. “This is an incredibly unprecedented request. I hope you understand that. The madam is willing to take a risk if I am, and I’m willing to say yes if you give me your word that no permanent harm will come to me.”
Maeve starts to speak, but I put my hand on her thigh to still her words. “Why would you take that risk? I could kill you, and you’d be too dead to worry about me breaking my word.”