Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Everything in me tightened as the moment stretched between us, his breath warm against my flesh. He moved, but I didn't dare. His fingers trailed along the edge of my neck, tracing the vein that pulsed with every frantic beat of my heart—
“No.” He shoved me out of his hold, the force enough to send me stumbling away from him.
I whirled around to face him, my brow furrowed. “You’re an idiot,” I snapped.
“I’ve been called worse.”
“You’re going to kill yourself.” I charged toward him, swinging with every ounce of fury lashing in my soul. “Feed.”
“Not going to happen,” he said, but his jaw clenched.
Fine. He wanted to do things the hard way, then so be it.
I stopped my outright advances, drawing up my powers. One second, I stood before him, glaring and ready to spit fire, and the next, I blinked out of sight.
His growl was beyond satisfying, but his eyes darted straight for me as I darted behind him. But he didn’t see the kick coming as I swiped his legs out from beneath him. His spine smacked against the mat with a satisfying thud and I popped back into sight just as I sank atop him.
“I win,” I said, pinning his broad shoulders to the mat. “Tell me the real reason we’re here,” I demand, returning to our earlier conversation. “You claim my training has nothing to do with my abilities. Then why are we here?”
His eyes widened as he stared up at me, the muscles in his body tensing against my weight above him. And I knew it had nothing to do with my weight and everything to do with the feel of me against him, because damn. Having Hawke beneath me? His hard, warm body radiating that scent I could never possibly get enough of? It was enough to steal my breath, to make me forget I’d even asked a question.
“Me,” he whispered, and I tilted my head. One second, I was above him, and the next, I was soaring in a spiral until my back was flat against the mat, and he was the one pinning me, my wrists locked above my head.
I arched beneath him, lifting my chest off the mat until it was practically at mouth level. He groaned again, shaking his head even as the motion made his lips graze the top of my chest.
“What do you mean, you?” I asked, my voice breathless. Hawke’s body was between my thighs, but not in the way I had always imagined. Not in the way I’d ached for him on a nightly basis for so damn long.
His grip on my wrists tightened, the sting from his strength making me gasp. I shifted again, lowering my chest and exposing my neck, offering myself again. I didn’t care how many times it took me. I’d keep doing it until he finally broke and fed.
“Me,” he said again, his tone laced with hunger and rage. “Training you is for my peace of mind. Don’t you get that, Princess? I’m a selfish bastard. This isn’t about your abilities, it’s about my need to know you’re safe.”
“And yet you reprimand me for doing the same thing,” I fired back, but my heart was melting. Hawke had always walked the line for me—the one between terrifying and loving, all-consuming and totally fulfilling. He was a walking contradiction that I simply couldn’t help loving. “Feed,” I demand, arching against him, whimpering at the way he felt above me. All heat and muscles and power.
I should have been trembling in fear at the monster pinning me to the mat. He had to be near bloodmadness, and here I was offering myself to him like a fine bottle of red wine. I knew the risks, the danger. If he let himself go, let himself taste me, he could lose control. He could drain me of every last drop and there would be nothing I could do to stop him.
A tendril of anticipation unraveled inside me, a lick of pure, white-hot heat snapping through me at the mere idea of him unleashing himself on me like that. And maybe that made me incredibly reckless and naïve, but I just didn’t care.
“You think you know what you’re asking of me,” he said, lowering his lips toward my neck, his powerful body pushing into me even more. His lips grazed my skin, the lightest of touches, but my body coiled from the sensation. “But you have no fucking idea,” he snapped, his free fist slamming into the mat before he leaped off of me.
I darted to my feet, my entire body cold from the loss of his heat. An argument was on the tip of my tongue, but I snapped my mouth shut.
He was gone.
Stubborn, irritating asshole.
The words filled my head as I silently followed Hawke toward the Domum. I kept my pace several yards behind him, just to be safe. After our complete disaster of a training session last night, the last thing I needed was him sensing my presence, but I couldn’t not check up on him. Every day he went without feeding properly brought him one day closer to his demise. Hawke was powerful and terrifying on a good day. If he let the bloodmadness take him? I didn’t know if even my brother would be enough to restrain him.