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)
I grazed her nose with mine.
She flinched and pushed me, upsetting my balance again and stepping out of my grasp. “Next time, I’ll just let you fall.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Just like you let me fall off the cliff?”
She sniffed. “I refuse to repeat that conversation.”
“And I refuse to let you continue giving me the silent treatment.” I pinched the bridge of my nose before dropping my hand. “I told you I don’t like it. If I wanted silence again, I’d just have disposed of you when I had the chance.”
“Hah!” She smiled nastily. “And what chance was that? The one when you tried to strangle me the first time? Or was it the second? Oh wait, no, it was the third time, wasn’t it? The time you ran after me and pinned me into the mud?” Her eyes narrowed to slits. “But wait, that time you kissed me instead. You chose to make love to me instead of kill—”
“I didn’t make love to you.” I stood straight, temper crackling down my spine. “I fucked—”
“Yes, yes, you taught me a lesson by fucking me senseless.” She waved her hand. “Consider me terrified.”
“I—”
Goddammit, this woman.
I opened and closed my mouth, not quite sure what to volley with. My temples pounded, and I struggled to keep track of what we were arguing about. Wait, was this even an argument? I was confused and horny and dangerously close to just grabbing her and doing whatever I wanted. I wanted her ever since latching that cuff around her ankle. I’d wanted her every fucking second or every fucking day, and the fact I hadn’t taken her yet confounded me. I was no stranger to forced sexual contact. It was easy to get others to grant whatever twisted pleasure you were in the mood for. I should know. I’d been summoned far too many times to count. Yet for some idiotic reason, the longer I kept her—choosing to care for her like any good owner would his pet—the harder I found it to take her.
Probably because, no matter her denial, I’d never actually forced her. That time by her car had been entirely fucking mutual. And the second time in her car...shit, that’d been hot as hell, devastatingly erotic, and Christ, I needed back inside her.
Running both hands through my hair, I scowled. “What’s your point? I’m assuming you have a point? Or did you just feel like being a bitch for no reason?”
Her hands balled at my slur, but she kept her chin high and voice clipped. “My point, oh incredible master, is just like I don’t seem to have the power to kill you, you do not have the power to kill me.” She marched into me, stabbing my T-shirt with her finger. “Ergo, we are both doomed to live with threats and ultimatums but both too stupidly weak to do anything about them.”
“Speak for yourself.”
She snorted. “Okay, fine. Good luck proving me wrong.” Stomping off, she only got a few feet before the chain around her ankle yanked on the one around my waist, making us both grunt with discomfort.
Swallowing back rapidly unfurling anger, I stalked to her side. “I’m glad you’re so full of energy. That’s going to be convenient for the next task.”
She scowled. “What task?”
“That.” I pointed toward the river with its crystal water. Parts of the blue waterway followed sedately with barely a ripple, while just before the calm pool, rapids danced and bounced over rocks. Those rapids were responsible for eighty percent of all electricity power at Fables, and whatever had damaged the hydro plant needed to be fixed well before ice arrived.
Luckily, the rapids were the last part of the river to freeze, normally waiting until early spring to turn solid completely, meaning the solar panels could pick up the slack as sunlight hours increased. However, during the dead of winter, every kilojoule generated by this river was valued and sorely needed.
“Come.” Tugging the leash around my waist, I gave her no choice but to follow me to the water’s edge. She came grudgingly, her body tense and lips pursed in frustration. My heart chose that moment to skip a stupid beat as the memory of her in the foyer slammed into me. “Tell me what we need to do.”
We.
In that second, she’d accepted that there was a we. That whatever separate paths we’d been on were now unarguably threaded into one.
That memory vanished as quickly as it’d arrived, dumping me back by the river.
And fuck me, I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there or why.
For a terrifying second, I glanced around at a foreign land, and I didn’t have a goddamn clue who I was, where I was, or what I was supposed to be doing.
Oh, God.
Clammy sweat drenched me.
I sucked in a shallow breath.
Panic flowed swift, only to screech to a halt as my mind suddenly flooded with answers.