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)
Lately, I’ve repeated this pattern. Every night, a different woman in a different bed. Still, my need for Kari keeps growing.
There must be more to life than shagging random females. What is the point of living for centuries if they’re full of empty embraces and quiet misery?
Sitting up, I scrub my hands across my face. Time to leave, before this stranger wakes. Where the hell are my clothes?
Ignoring my pounding head, I slide off the edge of the bed and scan the shadowy room. The November chill needles my skin as I pluck my discarded garments from among the woman’s. Her bra tangles with my socks. Her dress sits under my pants. Her knickers lay atop my shirt.
“Going somewhere?” the woman rolls over and asks in a sleep-rough voice.
She has lovely brown eyes with thick lashes, flushed cheeks, and lushly swollen lips. Abrasions from my stubble redden her jaw and breasts. I’m betting her thighs, too. I did that. While thinking of another woman. It isn’t fair to her. Or to me.
Though I have nothing against whatever her name is, I can’t look at her anymore. She provided a distraction last night, and in turn, I gave her pleasure. Now I merely want a drama-free farewell.
I do my best not to wince as I spew my usual lie. “I’ve got a busy morning. Running late, in fact.”
She hums a noncommittal reply. I don’t know whether she believes me or not.
Shoving down guilt, I grab my clothes and yank them on. I’d use my magic, but last night, Raiden chose two very human ladies.
The brunette tugs on the sheet self-consciously, covering everything below her neck. It’s a relief, really. She’s attractive, but I can’t deny my disinterest in the harsh light of day.
“Cuppa?” she offers.
I’d love some caffeine, but… “Don’t trouble yourself. Do you know where my brother has gone?”
“With Lily. Two doors down, corner unit.”
Splendid. With Raiden elsewhere, I can teleport home without a dressing-down from my twin. What I’ll do then… No idea. Part of me wants to drown my sorrows in more scotch, but drinking before eight a.m. seems a bit irresponsible, even for a Wolvsey.
Once I finish donning my clothes, I nod her way. “Right. Goodbye, then.”
“Before you go…”
“Yes?” I pray she won’t ask me to fix some bit of plumbing for her or, worse, climb back into her bed.
“Let’s not see each other again.”
Perhaps I should care that she’s insulted my masculinity or my prowess or some such. But I only feel relief. “Agreed.”
With a sharp nod, I exit, jogging down the hall and bypassing Lily’s flat, where my brother is presumably sleeping. Or shagging. Raiden is a grown wizard who knows his way home. The sooner I leave here, the better.
I race down the stairs. Once in the building’s empty lobby, I tuck myself into a dark corner and picture the manor I share just outside London with the other Wolvsey wizards. Then I dissipate from the spot before materializing back home.
I crave a shower to erase the scent of the stranger. And a steaming cup of coffee. I hate that it’s impossible to have both at once, but my hangover wins. I head first for the kitchen, only to realize I’m not alone.
“Early morning or late night?” my father quips.
“Both.”
He grins, revealing a row of white teeth and subtle laugh lines. His short, dark hair is lightly peppered with gray. At nearly seven hundred, Nathanial Wolvsey looks barely forty in human years.
“Me, too,” he confides.
Looking at my sire is like looking into my future. Same build, same features, same eyes. Same life of excess, alcohol, and one-night stands. Same lack of anything meaningful in life.
“You’re frowning. Wake up beside an ugly one?”
Quite the opposite. But I didn’t wake up beside Kari. Uttering such a sentiment would only incite howling laughter. But I’m not certain I can hold it in. My fever for Kari still rages, and I need answers. My father is, unfortunately, my best source of information.
“Are you quite certain our family is cursed?”
My father sets down his steaming mug with a scowl. “You doubt it?”
“Has any Wolvsey ever tried to mate?”
Nathanial recoils. “Good Lord, why would you want to?”
“I don’t know that I do.” Liar.
“Without the instinct, we could taste a million women and never know if any was our fated one. That curse is to blame. So why risk a life of abject unhappiness?”
Because I’m already miserable.
“If it’s children you want, be patient. Your uncles and I have proven that conceiving them is possible. Outside the mate bond, that requires a great deal of diligent effort, but I’m sure you won’t mind.” My father winks. “In fact, Raiden informed me yesterday that a little witch he shagged last month is expecting. His first. Right proud, he was. So you see…”
I freeze. My twin is having a youngling with a witch he barely knows and might never see again. And he’s proud? I don’t understand, but I have to press on. “Remind me how the curse began.”