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)
That’s fucking insanity.
My body didn’t care. It wanted her. Every part of me wanted her except for the logical, nagging knowledge that she’d regret it in the evening.
Take her. Taste her. Claim her. The demand was so insistent that my fingers slipped free of her wet heat and went for my zipper.
What the actual fuck are you doing?
“Hawke?” She was so damned beautiful, all satisfied from my touch, my blood. She sat up again, her eyes hazy as color bloomed in her cheeks.
Color I’d put there.
“I have to go.” Now. Right fucking now.
“Let me take care of you,” she whispered, her hands drifting down my chest, over the planes of my stomach.
“I can’t. You can’t. We can’t.” I shook my head and bracketed her hips with my hands.
“You told me to ask you for what I wanted, and I want you.” She flicked open the button on my leathers.
Run.
Take her.
“You won’t want me tomorrow.” I rolled, dumping her onto the couch, and springing to my feet, not even daring to look back at her sprawled out on the sofa, all but naked and willing. So damned willing.
“Hawke!”
I bolted for the door, breathing in the scent of her blood and mine mixed with the pure aphrodisiac of her sex. Flicking the lock, I lunged outside her bedroom, then slammed the door behind me, gulping in heaving breaths while I fought my primal nature.
I pulled my shit together and walked away, but I heard the sound of breaking glass against the door as I blatantly fled.
8
Avianna
I smoothed my fingertips self-consciously over the skin-tight, black leather catsuit I’d squeezed into less than an hour ago. The suit covered every inch of my skin except for my neck, complete with gloves that had tiny slits where my fingers peeked through. A black leather corset that laced up the back gave the suit another level of dimension. A black cat mask covered half my face, my eyes rimmed in thick sweeps of midnight that made my sapphire blue eyes pop. A whip completed the look, the weapon coiled around my waist, making me look like I had a tail.
“I can’t wait to see his face when he sees you,” Annika said from the seat right next to me, the big sedan taking us toward Jocelyn’s favorite club for her annual Halloween party.
“I’m sure Samuel will absolutely disapprove,” I said, biting on my red-stained lips.
Annika arched an eyebrow at me, her face covered in glitter, her body sheathed in a light green sheer dress with sparkling wings on her back. She made a beautiful dark-haired fairy for sure, and the sweet innocent costume was most certainly something I would’ve gone for in the past.
But the moment I’d agreed to marry Samuel, I’d decided I would live until my sequestering, and wearing something totally opposite of everything I’d ever chosen before was right on track.
“You know that’s not who I meant,” Annika said, lowering her voice despite there being a partition between us and the talem who drove us.
A wave of heat crashed right down the middle of me. I knew who she’d meant.
Hawthorne.
Every inch of me burned beneath the leather suit with the thought of what he’d done to me, to my body. The way he’d made me beg for it, made me voice exactly what I wanted from him. The way he’d fed from me then single-handedly unraveled years of tension, sending me into orbit with just the use of his hands. And then the taste of his blood. God save me. It was the most delicious and powerful blood I’d ever tasted, like black cherries and espresso.
“I know,” I finally admitted.
Annika flashed me a sympathetic look but didn’t push. She was as amazing as her sister and I was grateful she’d decided to come to the party with me tonight. Olivia had been too tired to even try, and I didn’t blame her one bit. She was growing a whole-ass vampire, and with her and Ransom’s bloodlines merging? The youngling would no doubt be a force to be reckoned with.
The sedan slowed outside a red brick building, white and purple lights flashing under the dark awning that covered the club’s entrance. Jocelyn had rented out some prime VIP space in Wonderland, one of Edgemont’s hottest nightclubs. And that, alongside the fact that even Alek himself would be attending the party, was the only reason I was allowed to come in the first place. Our entire family would be here, minus one tired, pregnant Olivia, and I was seizing the opportunity to let loose.
“You ready?” Annika asked, her glitter-covered hand on the car door handle.
“Yes,” I said, sucking in a sharp breath. I’d chosen this costume solely because I wanted to see Hawke’s face when he saw me in it. I knew him way better than he thought I did, and though I’d never been able to confirm it one-hundred percent, I had a feeling black leather and whips were right up his alley.