Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 26960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26960 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
I take every inch with a cry, feeling complete. Whole. Ecstatic.
Groaning, he sets a blistering, harsh pace, as if he intends to claim me so completely, nothing and no one can ever separate us. I melt all over again.
He holds my gaze as he fills my body over and over. “You please me as no other ever has. As no other ever could.”
Then his mouth crashes over mine, and I’m lost in a torrent of blistering passion.
Before Ronan, I thought my sex life, while short, was decent enough. But I know better now. The sensations my wizard stirs, the feelings we share… This is like nothing I’ve ever imagined. It’s special. Priceless.
Forever.
I throw myself into our kiss, gasping against his lips when his thumb slides over my desperate clit and lingers, pushing me with insistent circles toward a cataclysmic orgasm.
Burning with need, I feel my body tighten around him. I swell with desire, with love, as he hurtles me straight into a chasm of pleasure so vast, I come apart and scream until the walls around us rattle. My cries echo, melding with his groans. Breaths, thoughts, and sanity elude me until he raises my hips, leans over my body, and fills me with his most demanding strokes yet. Then, with a shout, he follows me into the bliss of our shared nirvana, cementing us as one.
Ronan
For long moments, Kari and I remain wrapped in each other’s arms, struggling to catch our breath and reclaim our ability to think. Still buried inside her, I savor the bliss of holding her…because reality and regret are beginning to set in.
I shouldn’t have given in. I should let her go…
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop. I won’t let any silly curse come between us.” Kari grips my shoulders even tighter. “I’m ready to speak the Binding.”
Her insistence and loyalty are touching but futile. “Kari, love, I want that as well, more than you know. But it’s too soon. I need to research the curse more, learn if it’s possible—”
“I won’t believe we’re impossible. If we heed the curse, we’ll be separated. And it will have beaten us. Together, we have a chance.”
I love her optimism, but she doesn’t understand magic—or the peril enveloping magickind. “One that may cost you your life!”
“What sort of life will it be if we’re apart?”
A miserable one. Of course, Kari will fall in love again someday—likely with a human—and get married. As much as the thought of her with anyone else makes me murderous, I should walk away so she can live long enough to find happiness.
I’ll spend the rest of my centuries alone. Year after bleak year, stretching into empty decades, sits before me.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow.
Damn my foolish ancestor who betrayed a mate capable of cursing him. Damn my family—even me—for never researching how to end such a hex. Not one of us has ever lifted a finger—or a wand—to break it. Shock claims that believing in a curse gives it strength. I have no idea if he’s right or utterly full of shit. But I can’t gamble with Kari’s life.
After I kiss the tip of her nose, I pull away and dress us both with a wave of my hand.
“Ronan?” Kari curls her fingers around mine.
She wants reassurance. I don’t know if I can give it to her.
I sigh. “If there is a way for us to be together that ensures you won’t be at risk, I’ll seize it with both hands and never let go.”
“No. This can’t be it.”
Kari throws her arms around me. I hold her just as desperately.
I know I should release her to keep her safe, but now that the time has come, it’s killing me. She’s become my heart. My everything. If the curse forces me to give her up, I have no idea how I’ll bear it.
I kiss her, my lips lingering on hers, feeling my heart beat with hers—until a disturbance in the air jars me from the moment.
Quickly, I thrust Kari behind me and whirl to face the threat. Instead, I find Tynan. Another whoosh, and Bram stands beside him. Others follow. A bloke with wavy brown hair and resentment broiling in his very blue eyes, a hulking wizard with a nearly shaved head and an angry mien, and a sophisticated-looking male in Savile Row tailoring. He holds the arm of one of the biggest humans I’ve ever seen. With black hair and goatee, along with an expression to match, the warrior is clearly one I shouldn’t fuck with.
“Ronan.” Bram rears back in surprise. “We expected an empty room since Kari promised me a place to hide from my meddling sister… Anyway, this is Caden MacTavish, Ice Rykard, and Simon Northam, Duke of Hurstgrove.”
“Just Duke, please,” says the one who looks like he’d stepped out of GQ.
“The big warrior is Marrok. I think you know everyone else. Care to stay while we discuss the latest?”