Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Closing my eyes to him, I pulled in a breath and felt my shoulders ease away from my ears.
“Good. That’s good, Lorieyn.”
Anxiety rode me hard when his attention to washing my arms ended. An open palm slick with foam landed on my flat stomach, leaving a trail of sensation in its wake. From hip point and across my navel, he then stroked until he cupped my ribs and began working his fingers between the bones.
All the while, he cooed his soothing praise, moving slowly as if I were some frightened animal.
Knowing he prepared for intimate moments of this nature for years.
That he imagined all outcomes, had contingency plans in place for every nervous breath I might take, each complaint I might voice.
That, should I strike or refuse him, all he need do was thrum and scent the air.
Shift my weight to the right? He’d shift to the left. Should I turn my head away? He’d lay a kiss on my exposed throat.
Should I grouse, he’d thump out a single brazen pulse that calmed my racing hearts.
And when his diligent fingertips found a spot that made my breath catch, he’d chase out every tingle he might inspire my body to experience.
I’d never really understood the term “luxuriate” before.
Now, I understood why that word rolled over the tongue, why you had to feel it with your whole mouth. Rounded, sensory yet cognizant, it was a waving energy that lulled even as it roused.
And I liked it. After years of hard labor, pain, discipline, and hypervigilance, I liked it in a way that made me understand how tenuous my self-control might be under an expert touch.
Parting my lashes, I dared take an unhurried look at the seductive, grand liar with his hands all over me.
He was delighted to do as he pleased. Had been waiting for me to rouse enough to remember to glower.
Green eyes found mine through the steam.
This man was no stranger, no lover, no prince come to whisk me away to his castle tower.
No, the one testing techniques he learned from God only knew how many manuals was the very authority figure responsible for every day I endured since we met.
My mate.
“Lorieyn…” Taking his time choosing his next words, his tone matched his self-satisfied smirk. “It isn’t like you to be this obedient. You must want something.”
“I’m collecting data.” And that was not a lie.
“Hmm.” He eased closer, close enough that his body brushed mine. Looking down his nose at me, transfixed as if he’d chosen that precise moment to count the droplets of mist that collected in my lashes, he demanded I explain. “And what have you ascertained?”
“That you’re touching me in a very specific way… because you want something as well.”
Fingertips tripped down the side of my throat, leaving me to shiver and lose ground. His voice was molten. “I do want something.”
But if that something were sex, his cock would have already begun to burrow. Instead, it clung to my hip, stroking me just as his hands did.
Disinterested in falling into the trap of asking what it was he sought, I dropped my gaze and moved my attention to his chest. Water beaded on pale skin, little rivulets running where they would. Like mine, his scales caught the light, flecked here and there in enticing patterns.
“You’re braver than this. Look at me, sweet mate.” Fingers caught my jaw, urging me to turn my chin up.
Yet I kept my eyes down, wondering how this man was able to deceive me for so long.
And it was more than the fact that he heard my song.
It was his callousness toward human life.
In all his years overseeing the academy, how many times had I heard him recite our vows? The hybrids’ solemn promise to protect humans at the cost of our lives. To remember why we had been created and blessed with such gifts. To acknowledge we would never grow old, that our vigilance must never slip. That the survival of everyone building a new society on this harsh planet depended on us.
And this man blatantly refused to keep his word.
“Promise me you will not harm the humans.”
“No.”
What else was he lying about? What other schemes was he up to?
Thumb tracing my pout, he murmured, “So, it's not that you’re afraid. It’s that you’re angry.”
Yes, he could read me as easily as he could any book. But it also wasn’t that simple.
This man had been responsible for my rearing and lessons. For my pains and punishments. To learn he was capable of things I would’ve never imagined had shaken me.
And I was powerless in our dynamic.
His obsession with my song gave me no ability to curb or contain him.
His whispered refusal of my pleas and coldness toward the humans was absolute, colored by a dark history Miranda had only hinted upon.
“And now you are full of fire.” Spoken with such benevolence from such a bad man, as if he knew the exact trail of my thoughts and mused to himself of my folly.