Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
“Well, I didn’t catch him so much as he caught me,” I confessed.
“What?” Her eyes went wide. “Tell me all about it! I have to know!”
“Um…well, it was kind of a bargain…”
I wasn’t sure how much I ought to tell Slade’s sister. But she was so open and friendly that I felt at home with her right away. She was certainly an improvement on his nasty-nice stepmother who I already couldn’t stand. Lyrah’s backwards compliments cut to the quick—she seemed to know exactly how to hurt me while keeping that fake smile plastered on her too-perfect face.
Jessina couldn’t have been more different. She was funny and sharp and she made me laugh several times. She listened intently as I gave a slightly sanitized version of how Slade had gotten me to marry him and whisked me away to his penthouse.
“Oh my Goddess of the Four Faces, I can’t believe it! I knew he must have pulled some kind of trick to get one of the Untainted to marry him!” she exclaimed. “I know your sect of humans likes to keep their DNA pure.”
“I don’t care so much about that,” I protested. “But I was pretty upset that he manipulated me into marrying him.”
“And now?” She raised her eyebrows. “How do you feel?”
“A lot different,” I confessed. “I was kind of determined to stay his enemy at first but now…well, your brother has really grown on me.”
“Of course he has! Admit it—you love him, don’t you? At least a little?”
I could feel my cheeks getting hot, but I couldn’t deny it.
“I think I’m falling in love with him, yes,” I admitted in a low voice. “He’s just…not at all what I expected. I thought he would be rough and cruel, but he isn’t—he’s the opposite. He’s been very patient with me,” I added, thinking of the slow progression of spreaders he had used on me to get me ready for his shaft. I wondered if he would be Breeding me tonight and my cheeks got even hotter.
“Oh my Goddess of the Four Faces—look at you! You’re blushing!” Jessina exclaimed, laughing delightedly. “You’re not just falling in love—you’re in love. Which makes sense—Slade’s a good guy. I mean, don’t get me wrong—he’s a cold-blooded killer. But he’s a good guy.”
“He’s what?” I asked, my eyes going wide. The fact that his own sister would call him that was worrisome.
“What I said—I once saw him kill someone, right in front of me.” Jessina shrugged, as though it was no big deal.
“You…you did?” I asked faintly. That was much worse than just cutting someone’s fingers off—though of course, neither scenario was ideal.
“Uh-huh.” Jessina nodded. “But to be fair, it was a guy who had attacked me at a party. He got me in a back room and tried to…” She trailed off and went pale for a moment, her smooth brown skin looking almost ashy. “Anyway, I screamed and thank She of the Four Faces, Slade heard me and came running.”
“Were you all right?” I asked anxiously. “I mean, the guy…he didn’t…”
“No, Slade got to me in time—barely.” She shook her head, looking grateful. “The guy had already managed to rip open my shirt and pull up my skirt. And he was on top of me with his dick out.” She swallowed and her eyes were haunted. “It was really bad.”
“And what did Slade do? I mean, how…how did he kill him?” I asked, curious despite myself. I was no longer horrified—as far as I was concerned, what Jessina was describing equaled a justified killing.
“Oh, he let his Darkness out and bit the guy’s head off. Blood went spraying everywhere—including all over me,” Jessina said matter-of-factly. She shivered. “Ugh, it was awful!”
“It sounds really traumatic.” I reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. “I’m so sorry, Jessina.”
“Thanks but it could have been way worse.” She shook herself and seemed to come back from the dark place the memory had taken her. “I wish the females of our Clan had the Darkness too—if we did, I wouldn’t have had to scream for Slade to rescue me.”
“So it’s only the males that have it?” I asked.
She nodded.
“So unfair, right? It’s the male Brutes that get all the benefits of a genetic trade—we females don’t get anything but the looks. Speaking of which, you’re probably wondering why I look like this instead of like the rest of my family…”
She went on to explain that her mother had been half Yerbishian and that was where she got her gorgeous brown skin tones.
“She was great, my mom,” she said longingly and I could hear the loss in her voice. “It’s been ten years since she died and I still miss her every day.”
“I know how you feel. I lost my mom when I was sixteen,” I told her. “Only my father never remarried.”