Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
But Nylian hadn’t given me the chance to ignore that same voice that had been fawning over him from the first second I’d opened my eyes and seen him hovering above me.
Sorry, gay half of my libido. That was totally on me. And maybe on the society I’d been living in. If this was what sex was like with gay men, I’d missed out on a lot.
“And before I forget…” Nylian announced, marching out of the bathroom with a stern expression. His pants were closed, but his shirt was now missing, giving me an excellent view of his strong, muscular chest.
Yes, I think I’m going to enjoy being bi very much.
“You’re mine.”
That statement had my brain blinking on. “What?”
Nylian stopped and poked my left shoulder with one finger. “You’re mine. That means you may not flirt with anyone, especially women.”
“What are you talking about?” The elf was losing his goddamn mind. “When have I flirted with anyone?”
“You’ve flirted with countless barmaids, most of the women in that soap shop in Riverhold, Adeline, and—”
“Oh my God, you’re crazy! I haven’t flirted at all. I was being friendly. You’re just upset that I haven’t flirted with you.” Nylian’s mouth shut with a click of his teeth, and I gasped. “That’s what started this. You thought I was flirting with those two women at the ball!” I threw my hands up and tried to march away from the door, only to have my pants slide down my thighs. Cursing my pants and the ridiculous man behind me, I fought to get them up. “I wasn’t flirting with them. I went over to talk to them to get them to flirt with you.”
In the blink of an eye, the elf was in front of me, a complicated expression on his face that I couldn’t read, but tonight had shown me I was terrible at reading what was going on in his head.
“You were trying to get me laid?”
I rolled my eyes. That was oversimplifying, but I didn’t want to get into it. “More or less.”
“And you said something similar about Adeline, too.”
“True.”
His strange expression cleared into a soft smile that did funny things to my heart. I was probably still in the middle of a heart attack over what we’d done against the door. He cupped my cheeks with his hands and pressed a tender kiss to the corner of my mouth. “The only one I want in my bed is you. If you can arrange for that to happen each and every night, I will be perfectly happy. You are mine, Lockhart. Don’t forget that.” He released my face, snagged my non-cum-crusted hand, and pulled me to the bathroom. “Let’s get you cleaned up. But not too much. It’s good that you smell like me now. Let all those wretches out there know they can’t touch you.”
“What does that even mean, ‘You are mine’?”
He smirked as he pushed me to sit on the edge of the enormous bathtub. “Mine? You don’t have that word in your world?”
“Asshole,” I muttered. “Does that mean that I must be monogamous to you alone while you go off and add me and a dozen other men and women to your harem?”
“What harem?” Nylian laughed as he dampened a cloth and brought it over. “I don’t have a harem.”
I almost shouted in his face that he was supposed to be like twelve women deep in his harem, but I held those words in. Apparently, I was the reason he didn’t have a harem. “You’re going to have one. I’m sure you’re going to begin stocking it the minute your father is shown the truth and you’re welcomed home. Oh, wait. You’re not expecting me to be around that long. You just want to have some fun while you’re trapped outside of your home.”
I stood, wanting to get away from him…and myself. My head was a mess. This was supposed to be a subtle fact-finding conversation about what he thought about his one-day harem. But there was a strange tightness growing in my throat, and my chest hurt every time I thought about all those other women and men who would be falling over themselves to get close to him. I didn’t want to think about them or how it was only a matter of time before he’d forget me.
Nylian grabbed a fistful of my shirt and pulled downward, forcing me to sit. As soon as I did, he captured my lips in a slow, drugging kiss that helped to sweep aside the rampaging thoughts and emotions filling my brain. I kissed him back, my hands coming to rest on his hips, holding him close.
He broke off the kiss and pressed a second, lighter one to the center of my forehead. “Idiot,” he mumbled, but the word was full of warm affection. “I’ve lost my best friend and brother. Been accused of murdering him. Been exiled from my home. The only thing that should matter to me is catching the actual murderer and clearing my name. Yet, every day, my mind is full of you. What crazy thing is Lockhart going to say today? What can I do to make him smile at me? What can I do to convince him to see me as more than a friend?”