Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Nope.
Was not going there.
“Tell me something about yourself,” Lord Thorne said, the roughness of his voice drawing my gaze from his arm. His head was still resting against the rim, eyes closed.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Anything,” he answered. “The silence allows my mind to wander to what your hands will feel like on my dick.”
My hands halted at his elbow for half a heartbeat as a sudden sharp, twisting motion pulsed through me. A little breathless, I resumed tracing the length of his strong arm. “Is that something you wish to prevent your mind from wandering to?”
The corners of his lips tipped up. “Not normally; however, I’ve come to learn that I enjoy you bathing me, and I do not wish to rush it.”
Skin flushing with a heat that now came from within, I slipped my hands over his shoulder and then down one side of his chest. “I’m not sure what to tell you, my lord.”
“Our paths have now crossed three times,” he said, and I mentally corrected him. Four times. Our paths had crossed four times. “Yet, I know little about you. You can start with something easy. Like are you from Archwood?”
“No.” My slippery fingers slid over the stonelike skin of his upper stomach.
“The Midlands at all?”
I considered lying but decided against it as I re-lathered my hands. “I’m from the southern lands.”
“The Lowlands?”
“Close about.” That was somewhat of a lie. Union City existed on the border of the Lowlands and Midlands. I dragged my teeth over my lower lip. “Where are you from?”
“Vytrus.”
My heart skipped over itself. Vytrus was the Hyhborn Court nestled deep in the Highlands, the northernmost territory of Caelum and incredibly far from the Midlands, and yet, we all knew of the Prince of Vytrus. He was said to be one of the most dangerous of Hyhborn, unpredictable and volatile as the lands that he protected, and the hand of the King’s wrath. The King’s . . .
I’m one of the King’s favorites, in case you’ve forgotten.
The breath I took went nowhere as I stared at the back of his head and a sudden sense of knowing filled me. “The Prince of Vytrus?” I whispered. “What is his name?”
He turned his head slightly. A moment passed. “You already know it.”
CHAPTER 15
A faint tremor ran through my arms. “You’re not a lord.”
“No, I am not.”
Heart leaping, I jerked my hands back as if I’d been scalded while one chaotic thought crashed into another. I’d been touching a Hyhborn prince. The Prince of Vytrus was my Hyhborn. The dangerous, deadly being I’d rescued and was currently bathing was a prince. Oh my gods, Finn and those fools had bled and tortured a prince, almost—
“Finally,” he . . . Prince Thorne murmured.
I jolted. “Finally what?”
He faced forward. A moment passed. “You’re afraid.”
I blinked rapidly. Was I afraid? Who wouldn’t be, but . . . “You let me believe you were a lord.”
“I did.” His shoulders had tensed. “Is that why you’re now afraid? Because you know who I truly am?”
“I’m . . . I’m a little uneasy. You’re a prince and you have quite the . . .”
“Reputation?” he finished for me.
“Yes.”
His fingers tapped along the rim. “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, na’laa.”
“Sure,” I replied. “I mean, you can take a lowborn’s soul.”
“Just because I can, doesn’t mean I have.”
My brows shot up. “You’ve created no Rae?”
“Not in a very long time.”
I frowned at the back of his head. The way he said that . . . “Exactly how old are you?”
He chuckled. “Older than I look. Younger than you’re probably thinking.”
Well, that was also incredibly vague, but as the shock of his actual identity lessened and my heart calmed, I realized I . . . I wasn’t afraid of him. I was more afraid of what he was and why he was here. There was no way the King would’ve sent the Prince of Vytrus to collect tithes. He was here for another reason that I wasn’t sure had anything to do with the information he’d sought from Muriel. My heart started pounding again. When the Prince of Vytrus acted on the behalf of King Euros, violence and destruction almost always followed.
My throat dried as I forced myself to pull it together once more. I resumed servicing him, giving a fine shiver as my hands once more made contact with him. “Why have you not created any Rae in a long time?”
“Because it . . . seems unfair to do that to a soul.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. It wasn’t fair. Frankly, it was disturbing, but I hadn’t expected any Hyhborn to think that, let alone a prince. “I’m relieved to hear that.”
He said nothing to that.
I eyed the tense line of his shoulder and arms and decided to change the subject. “You’re very far from home.”