Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“What does it want?” she asks as I’m listening to the message.
Getting to my feet, I pause, wondering whether to include her. “My pet—Plutus—has returned,” I admit. “Would you like to meet him?”
She chews her lip, then holds out her hand for me to help her up off the floor. Her fingers are cold to the touch and I grip them tight. “Ouch,” she mutters. “A little more awareness of your own strength would be appreciated.” I glare at her and she hastens to add, “And yes please, I’d love to meet Plutus.”
At least my little Omega has the good sense to know when a conversation has run its natural course. Sometimes. “Then let’s go.”
Renee
If that wasn’t the most infuriating dang conversation anybody ever had… and then we got interrupted right when it was getting interesting. I’m so distracted, and not just by the plug in my ass—unsettling though it may be. There’s a restlessness in me, a deep need to find out about every aspect of Krav’s life. To learn everything about him. But for now, I’ll settle for getting to see his mysterious pet.
Trudging along the hallways behind him, I keep stealing glimpses at Krav’s broad back. His gleaming wings are magnificent even when they’re tucked away, like now.
So demons don’t do love, huh? I’ve heard some paltry excuses from commitment-phobes before but this is a new one. Still, it would explain a lot. Like the fact that he just won’t be affectionate with me. He never cuddles me for long, not even after sex. If I’m cold, he’ll haul me up against him until I stop shivering, then he’s quick to move away.
Nor did I understand the whole separate bedroom arrangement until now. The first time I fell asleep beside him after sex, I woke up in a different bed. Alone. In what is now my room.
Sometimes, I wake up and sense him pacing around my bed. But he never climbs in, and I always fall back asleep.
It would be nice to be held while I sleep, but on the other hand, I’m grateful for the reprieve—it’s a relief to get the occasional break from being horny, and I’m always horny around him. Also, having lived alone for several years now, I don’t think I would deal real well with being around someone else 24/7. Especially a stranger. An alien stranger. Who, as it turns out, has the emotional intelligence of a twenty-something fuckboi.
We reach a huge, heavy door, which opens as if by magic. Maybe it is. “I don’t see a handle,” I say, hoping Krav will tell me how it works. I get anxious in places I can’t exit easily.
“There’s a tile,” he says, indicating it with his foot. “Just step on the tile and the door opens. There’s one on the other side too, of course.”
“Ah. Thank you.” The door doesn’t need to be held but Krav gallantly waits until I’ve gone through it before following me out.
I once had a job where my slightly older, male supervisor held a door for me, then informed me that guys only do that so they can check out your ass as you pass by them. Weird how little memories like that resurface occasionally. Especially now, when I can’t even remember the name of my street back home.
A cold breeze nips my face as soon as I’m outside, and I shiver in the ridiculous cobweb Krav calls a dress. The newly discovered submissive part of me doesn’t mind wearing what he wants—I’d go so far as to admit I enjoy it—but now we’re outside, I’m rapidly changing my stance.
I inch closer to Krav. His skin burns hotter than a human’s. He may not be a huge fan of cuddling or intimacy, but too bad. I need him to be my seven-foot-tall heater.
“You’re cold,” he says. “Wait.” He does that blurry thing with his hands, making it rain silver sparks, then gives me a fur-lined cloak which I tug gratefully around my shoulders.
“Thanks,” I tell him. At least I don’t have to worry about animal cruelty, what with it being man-made. Well. Demon-made. I suppress a grin at my own silly joke.
The air carries a hint of frost, completely at odds with the expanse of boiling, bubbling lava which surrounds the castle. The volcano looks dormant, and the three suns are low in the sky. If they’re giving off any warmth at all, I can’t feel it. What are the seasons like here? Not that long ago, I was tied to a tree and freaking out about getting sunburn. Now it smells like winter.
“Does it snow here?” I ask Krav, who’s peering across the lake like he’s searching for something.
“Snow?”
“Cold, white stuff falling from the sky. Big feature of Christmas cards, and the Winter Olympics.” Of course, he wouldn’t know what Christmas is. I should tell him sometime.