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 grimace. I don’t like coming here to find women, but Raiden insists nowhere else is more expedient or target rich.
“I don’t care who he’s found. He can have them both. I came for you,” I confess.
“We’ve been over this.” Kari reaches behind her for a glass on the shelf. “No.”
“Why?” Given her closeness to Tynan, it’s not because I’m a wizard.
“Don’t ask me again. Please.” She slams the glass on the well-worn bar between us.
I grab her hands. They’re soft, despite being slightly work-roughened. At a mere touch, desire burns, dismantling my composure. I ache to see her long fingers wrapped around my cock or feel her short, practical nails digging into my back as I fuck her hard. “You’re a fever to me. I need to touch you.”
“That line work for you often?”
Kari thinks my choked admission is a ploy? “I’m telling you the bloody truth.”
She shakes her head, curls brushing the pert breasts I’ve fantasized about touching, and extracts her hands to fill my glass of scotch. She shoves it my way. “Like any fever, you’ll recover. That’ll be twelve pounds.”
Swallowing a curse, I slide human money across the bar. “I just want to talk to you.”
“You want to shag me. And then forget me as you have every woman you’ve met here for the past two years. You have too many notches on your bedpost, and the line to be next is too long. No, thank you.”
With that, she turns her attention back to Tynan.
Bugger!
Raiden motions me over. I grab my drink and slide off my stool.
Kari huffs and turns away. Under her seeming dismissal, I glimpse her hurt. It nearly fells me. If only she would give me a chance… Then again, even if she did, where would it lead? Outside of the mate bond, magickind doesn’t subscribe to the human notion of monogamy. And Wolvseys don’t mate. It’s better for everyone.
Swallowing my frustration, I turn and paste on the expected smile. The brunette my brother procured for me is pretty enough. Nice mouth. Pert breasts. Still, if my magic didn’t require the energy derived from frequent sex, I wouldn’t bother. Perhaps I’ll be able to close my eyes and pretend she’s Kari. It would hardly be the first time. But now that wizards seemingly aren’t off Kari’s to-do list, I shouldn’t…but I’m determined to make her mine—at least for a night.
Kari
With the slam of the door, Ronan Wolvsey and his date disappear for the night, assaulting me with an all-too-familiar pain. I’m gutted each time he leaves with another woman, knowing he’ll pleasure her while I toss alone in my bed, wanting his heart and devotion—things he’ll never give any one woman.
Ronan is strictly the love-‘em-and-leave-‘em type.
“Who is he?”
I regard my newest regular, Tynan O’Shea. He’s polite and quiet—for now. But he’s a brewing storm, haunted by the murder of the girl he loved. I don’t know much about magical politics or its villains. In fact, as a human, I shouldn’t know about magickind at all. Some indiscreet wand waving after too much liquor changed that a few months back. But this Mathias d’Arc bastard, who killed Tynan’s beloved Auropha, sounds right scary. If I can help the grieving wizard, even by merely listening to him reminisce, I’ll do it.
If there’s one thing I understand, it’s loneliness.
“Just a regular who thinks he can crook his finger and I’ll shag him.”
Tynan pauses. “Has he ever kissed you?”
“No.” Not that Ronan hasn’t tried. Not that I haven’t thought about his masculine slash of a mouth devouring mine, demanding all from me as I lose my fingers in his midnight hair. Of my palms skimming his five o’clock shadow while his green eyes fuse to mine as he sinks deep inside me…
“Hmm. Ever…been with a wizard?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
Tynan manages a grin. “If you’d slept with one, you would know.”
“Really?” I drop my voice. “You look human enough. Prettier perhaps, but I assumed the anatomy works the same.”
“Yes and no.” He doesn’t elaborate.
“Come on, then. Spill. What’s different?”
“Everything I’m about to tell you must remain secret. We cannot allow word of our existence to spread.”
Not that I’d ever reveal anything, but if I tried, everyone would think I’m barking mad. “Of course.”
“Wizards are mostly like human men, except we must…indulge often to power our magic or we die.”
“Die? You’re serious?”
“Quite. Because of that, we have more”—he clears his throat—“stamina.”
So Ronan wasn’t exaggerating when he swore he’d shag me all night long? Even the thought makes me flush hot.
I haven’t bothered with sex since discovering that my fiancé, Edward, had a revolving door to his bed. Ronan has the same flaw. Yes, according to Tynan, the manwhore has a good reason, but watching him choose someone else almost every night…it hurts.
Still, I’m foolishly tempted to let Ronan break my celibate streak. Tynan’s whispers are only making me imagine a night with him. Even the details he’s divulged make me hot and fidgety. “I see.”