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)
Her lips parted and her scent changed, the heavier notes of desire rising between us.
Shit, she’d scented me, just like I was scenting her now.
“What can I do for you, Hawke?” she went for haughty, but her voice came out all breathless, and her pulse—that glorious, pounding pulse—sped up.
“Does that offer to feed me still stand?” I asked. No flourish or silver-spoon manners from me. Nope, I cut straight to the chase.
Her eyes flared, and she nodded, stepping back into her bedroom and holding the door open for me.
I glanced down the hallway to be sure we were unseen, and then I walked straight into the lioness’s den, shutting the door behind me and turning the lock. There had been at least a hundred times I’d been in this room, and yet everything about it had changed with that one request. There were a dozen surfaces I saw myself fucking her on. Against the wall. Bent over that chaise. Her thighs spread wide for me on her dresser. And that bed…
“Where do you want to…?” She motioned to the room around me, her eyes full of nervous, excited energy. She glanced at the bed.
“Not there.” I shook my head. There would be no controlling myself if I got her on her back amidst all that satin and silk. Beds had two primary purposes, sleeping and fucking, and there would be none of either. I took her hand and pulled her gently behind me as I walked to the small sitting area in the corner of her suite.
Fuck, her heart beat just as fast as mine, and the honeyed scent of desire coming from between her thighs was enough to make me sweat.
We sat on her couch, and I cupped her neck before I could rethink this foolish, reckless impulse, and leaned in.
“You walked out in the archives room.” Her words stopped my fangs just as they grazed her sin.
“I wanted you too badly to stay.” I should have lied, but the truth bit at my tongue.
She leaned away, and I lifted my head to meet her gaze, my thumb stroking the soft skin of her neck because I couldn’t help myself. “And will you stay this time?” she whispered.
My cock throbbed its answer.
I shook my head.
“Why not?” Two little lines appeared between her brows. “You heard Samuel. I’m free to do as I please until that contract is signed.”
A smirk tugged at my lips. “As if I give a fuck what Samuel says when it comes to what I do with you. I know our laws. I know you’re as good as single. But someone as innocent as you have zero business in bed with someone like me.” That was the truth of it.
She dragged her tongue over her lower lip, and I barely contained my moan at the sight of that little pink tip. I wanted it back in my mouth, licking at me, stroking me. I wanted to see it circle my cock just before her lips closed around me.
“You made me ache.” Her confession would have taken me out at the knees if I hadn’t already been sitting down.
“You make me burn,” I admitted, my hand rising along her neck, my fingers tangling in the long strands of her hair.
Her gaze dropped to my mouth, and I felt it like a caress. “I don’t want to be left with that ache again.”
Fuck. I shifted, preparing to stand.
“No!” She grabbed the leather strap just beneath my shoulder, the one that divided at the center of my chest into two rows of sheaths for my knives.
“What do you want, Avi?” My voice sounded like it had been trampled on.
“I want you here.” She let go with one hand and trailed her finger down her throat. “But only if you don’t leave me aching again.” Her eyes stared into mine, the unspoken request pausing my heartbeat, then making it thunder.
She wanted to come.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuck.
My body thought that was an excellent idea. So did the primal urges that sent heat barreling through my veins.
“Avianna…” Her name was a strangled plea. For what? Understanding? Space? Shit, I didn’t even know.
She looked at me with expectation and…trust. There was so much trust there that I didn’t deserve. If she even knew how badly I wanted to untie that robe and fuck her until neither of us could move, until her body accepted that it had been made for my cock and mine alone, she would have run, or at least withdrawn her request.
“Hawke,” she whispered.
Shit, the sound of my name on her lips like that did things to me. It made my chest ache, my hands itch for the feel of her skin, my mouth water for the taste of her. You can have it if you just control yourself.
Control was the one thing I excelled at, especially in the bedroom. But was I ever in control when it came to her? I wanted my fangs in her throat, but I wasn’t ravenous. My thoughts were clear without starvation beating at the door. My dick hurt, but I’d never been led around by it, and I wasn’t about to start now. There was nothing more important to me than her safety, so there was no chance that I’d hurt her, right?