Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
I heard him chuckle. “No pickled venna flower in the future.”
My tongue was bitter and my mouth overly salty. “Why would anyone eat that on purpose?”
“Try this. It will clear your pallet.” A spoonful of something dark and slick landed on my almost empty plate. “It’s sweet and fragrant.”
A brown paste with little flecks of deep-red flattened into a puddle before me. It didn’t look appetizing, it didn’t smell of anything familiar, and I would not have wanted it at all if not for the horrible taste in my mouth.
But on my tongue… it was sinful.
Where my pulses had seized into silence at one taste of the pickled flowers, I was now rumbling in pure joy as I rolled exquisite flavor over my palate. Eyes closed, savoring, I enjoyed it to such an extreme that I forgot just who sat across from me.
Which had been a stupid mistake on my part.
Lashes lifting once I swallowed, I saw a male hardly in control of himself. Vibrating, fists white on the table, he gazed as if starved.
Shit.
That hungry stare, his flush, was unsafe on every level.
Voice jagged gravel, he swore, “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself of that right now.” Ramrod-tense, I calculated just how far I might make it if I flipped the table and made a break for the door. “But I feel like if I run, you will hurt me.”
“Don’t. Run.” He wasn’t entreating me to stay near; he was warning me he could not stop himself from what would follow.
He said he wouldn’t rape me. I had to make that clear. “You don’t have my permission.”
Shuddering, as if imagining fulfilling dark cravings at that moment, he held back a pained groan. “I want you… to know that you can trust me. I want you to know how much I yearn to please you. How long I’ve waited to talk to you. Watching you eat my food—making those beautiful noises—has given me great pleasure.”
Pleasure? He looked positively tormented.
And I was beginning to feel sick again.
Voice catching, I thought to distract him. “You made this food?”
A short-lived rumble broke free of his chest, and I was certain that below the table that thing between his legs pulsated in anticipation. “I wasn’t sure how long you might sleep, or I would have prepared more.”
There were so many dishes already. Enough food to feed ten women. “Was it hard to do?”
“Wild vorec males hunt for their mates, reserving the best parts of their kill for their female. Hybrid males are driven to serve their mate in a similar fashion. I’ve had over a century to hone my skills.”
Another reminder that he was so much older despite his ageless appearance. “Over a century? You must be disappointed I’m so young.”
The knocking in his chest was anything but disappointed. “I know my age is intimidating to you, my beloved Lorieyn. I’ll admit, our dynamic is complicated. I have been the authority figure in your life since you were a girl. When you were a child and required correction, it was my duty to provide it. Now, you are my mate. The shift in your perspective from seeing me as a strict overlord to accommodating lover will evolve naturally. As you get to know me, you may find that I do have some pleasant qualities.”
Doubtful.
Imagining a world where I might have affection for such a man was unthinkable. “You may have been a decent man before you heard my song, but you’ve used your obsession as justification to be a monster.”
“Only when pressed to be one,” he answered softly, the hinted warning clear.
A man like him would never have remorse for what took place on his office floor.
Staring at me with such open longing, Cyderial said, “There is so much misunderstanding between us. You may resent the rigors of academy life, but hard training assured your safety and survival. In my keeping, you remained untouched, unharmed, and became well-educated.”
Whatever was between us ran much deeper than something as common as misunderstandings. I felt real, burning hate in my hearts. “The harder you restricted my freedoms, the more I rebelled, Cyderial. Did you imagine I sat in my room behaving myself in the face of each injustice? Learning how to escape your vault didn’t take that long.” Eager to strike at him the only way I might, I challenged his precious concept of his little mate. “I was not untouched.”
Unflappable, he leaned back in his fancy chair. “You are uncomfortable with intimacy, so you’re trying to goad me into anger.”
Showing teeth, I hissed, “You terminated our annual visits with our birthmothers. You stole our brothers. You hung children. And now I find that all of it was done so you could keep me to yourself? Well, I wasn’t yours. I discovered ways to get out. I did walk in the dark, looking for comfort, and I found it.” Clawing white linen on that table set for two, I growled, “And I liked it.”