Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 324(@300wpm)
I can’t catch my breath. I want to blame the buzzing in my head from being upside down, but fear is its true source. Because he’s not blustering. He’s not yelling or making ostentatious threats. He’s merely stating a future as if it’s a given.
If I run, they will kill me.
Tomorrow, I will tell myself that I wasn’t about to piss my pants in terror. Tomorrow, I will start thinking of a future where I can work around this inevitability. Tomorrow …
Right now, all thoughts have fled from my brain. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“I am trying to protect you.”
Bowen doesn’t want to hurt me. I think I knew that, but it’s never been clearer than it is in this moment. By all rights, my sneaking off the ship should count as breaking my vow. I certainly intended for it to. And yet he’s not ripping my limbs from my body and painting the forest with my blood.
Yes, he’s holding me captive. But he sounds so fucking exhausted that I have the strangest urge to give him a hug. I don’t know what the hell that’s about.
“I need you to tell me that you understand me, Evelyn.”
Just like that, whatever fight I have left drains away. At least for now. I nod, and even as scared as I am, I still note the fact that he adjusts his magical hold on my hair to ensure it doesn’t pull. Who is this man? To be so careful with me, and yet deliver one of the most horrific threats I’ve ever experienced. Because he’s not bluffing. He threatens the same way Lizzie does: A statement of fact. An explanation of consequences.
I don’t know if I’m going to get out of this one.
“I understand,” I finally managed.
Bowen’s magic moves around me as he turns me right side up and sets me on my feet. My blood immediately rushes from my head and I stumble. When he catches me, it’s not with his magic this time.
It’s with his hands. They’re very nice hands. Wide and rough in a way I can feel through my thin shirt. Strong, too.
It must be tangling my senses and confusing my instincts. That’s the only explanation, and not even a good one at that. Because instead of stepping away and putting some necessary distance between us, I lean in closer.
Worse still, I grab the front of his shirt and yank him toward me.
And then I kiss Bowen.
CHAPTER 11
Bowen
I WISH I COULD SAY IT HAPPENED TOO FAST FOR ME TO avoid. It’s a lie. The truth is that I let Evelyn pull me down and take my mouth. I didn’t even hesitate. I wanted to kiss her more than I wanted to do the right thing.
So much for honor.
She tastes like freedom. Like the air against my face and the sea beneath the rolling deck of my ship. I’m no poet, but the first stroke of her tongue against mine makes me want to be.
I don’t make a conscious decision to move, but she lets out a tiny little whimper and then my hands are in her hair and stroking down her back, urging her to press more tightly against me. She’s so fucking soft, it drives me wild. I cup her full hips and make a sound that’s damn near a growl.
I need to stop.
A mere minute ago, I was threatening her in the most violent way possible. I have no business grabbing two fistfuls of her ass and lifting her so she can wrap her legs around my waist. I sure as fuck shouldn’t turn and take several staggering steps so I can press her against the nearest tree.
I do it anyway.
All the while, she kisses me as if she might never get another chance, as if she wants to imprint every sensation on her very soul. I feel exactly the same way. I want more. I want everything. And yet I would be satisfied merely kissing this woman for the rest of my days.
Her tongue is just as quick as her words. She teases me, advancing and retreating in turn, almost seeming to taunt me. What am I saying? Of course she’s taunting me. Her hands are in my hair, tugging until she has my mouth exactly at the angle she prefers. There’s no hesitation. If there was, maybe I could stop myself from thrusting against her.
She makes that intoxicating whimpering sound again. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I thrust against her a second time. I’d like nothing more than to rip the pants from her body so that I can have complete access to her, but I have enough of myself still present to not give in to that animalistic urge.
She digs her heels into the small of my back, urging me closer even as she rolls her body against the hard length of my cock. I want to tell her to stop. I want to tell her never to stop. I don’t have the breath to do either.