Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“Ah, you bleed so pretty, little pup.” Levin dragged a paintbrush through my latest wound. “I might just have to take up painting and use your blood as ink.”
“Kas...Kas.” Lips on mine, and a scent that I’d always associate with Gemma now. Moonlight and papayas and woodsmoke.
She wrenched me back.
I slammed the doors shut.
I sucked in a breath as memories tried to suck me deep.
No way.
No fucking way.
If I let them have me again, I’d hurt her.
And I would rather kill myself than ever raise a hand against her again.
She was too good.
Too kind.
Too perfect.
Far, far too perfect for the likes of me.
“I have to go.” Pushing her off me, I struggled with the weight of my soaking jeans, doing my best to haul them up while trying to climb out of the tub.
She sat in the sloshing water as I almost fell headfirst into the dirt. Dirt that’d turned to mud thanks to all the water we’d displaced while rocking.
Holy shit, we’d slept together.
Not through coercion or threats. It wasn’t commanded or unwilling.
We’d both wanted it.
Both lost ourselves to the best thing I’d ever experienced.
Was it the best for her too?
Had she been with others who made her feel this way?
A growl rumbled in my chest, full of sick possession. The thought of anyone going near her now? Fuck me, I’d tear them into motherfucking pieces.
She was mine.
Mine and...I’m not mentally stable enough to claim her.
Backing up, I zipped up my jeans and pulled down my clinging, wet T-shirt. “I...I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
Gemma blinked with wary eyes as she sat in the middle of the bath.
The strangest sensation of being tethered to her rippled through me. An invisible rope from my heart to hers, so much stronger and unbreakable than the chain binding us together.
“Wait for me. We’ll go in together,” she said quietly, standing in the bath and revealing her stunning body. Water sluiced down her flat stomach, droplets dripped from her pubic hair, her breasts still held shadows from my fingers where I’d fisted her.
I stumbled backward, my cock swelling all over again.
This woman was an aphrodisiac. I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of her.
“Help me out. We’ll get dressed and spend the night together.” She smiled sweetly, and I almost buckled to my knees in devotion.
God, I wanted that.
Everything she said sounded incredible. We could snuggle by a fire. We could read a book. We could make a meal and watch the sun come up and talk. Talk like friends, like lovers, we could laugh and share and fuck and—
My mind went utterly blank.
I blinked as my world was erased to nothing but white. A blinding white light that swept away every sense, time, and location.
I didn’t know how long it lasted, only that it came and went like a switch. A flash and a crash, making me trip to the side as color and sound, smell and feeling all slammed into me again.
Gemma stood before me, her hands on my cheeks, her face worried. “Speak to me. Say something—”
I backed up, blinking and trying so damn hard to remember why she was naked, how we’d gotten outside, and—
The bath.
I drew her a bath to apologize.
We slept together.
I gulped.
Christ, how had I forgotten that part? Even for a second?
“Kas, tell me what just happened.” She planted hands on her hips, twisting in the mud, tracking me as I darted around her to grab the towel that I’d put aside.
I hadn’t done a very good job of cleansing her. Even now, I could see a sliver of my cum mixing on her thigh with the droplets from the bath. I’d dirtied her all over again. She needed another wash.
But my mind was done.
My eyes were heavy.
My thoughts were sluggish.
I needed to sleep.
And soon.
And I couldn’t be near her when I passed out.
“I need to go inside. On my own.” I shoved the towel into her hands. “Take this.”
My broken arm killed, the cuts on my knuckles stung, my mind was a scrambled mess, but the sudden pain and hurt in her eyes was what drove a fist into my heart and wrenched it clean out of my chest.
“You don’t have to go.” She clutched the towel as if it offered answers to my mood change. “We have so much to talk about and—”
“Not tonight.”
She flinched. “Why? What just happened? You spaced for a good couple of minutes. Did you have another...flashback?”
I shook my head, fisting my hands. “No. I’m just...I’m tired.”
“Well, we’ll go to bed then. It’s late, after all.”
I gave her a pained smile. “I promised you were safe tonight.”
“And you kept that promise.”
“And I wouldn’t be able to keep that promise if we went to bed together. To sleep.”
She stiffened. “I don’t think you should be alone.”
“And I don’t think it’s wise for you to be near me when I crash unconscious.” I stepped toward her only to step right back. If I touched her, I might not have the willpower to do this. “I think it’s best if we sleep apart, don’t you?”