Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
I don’t usually find grumpy men attractive. There’s nothing special about being in a bad mood. But already I’m sensing additional depths to this man creature. I’m definitely seeing additional limbs.
“I’m Tessie,” I say. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Order. You will call me sir.”
That sentence makes me want to squirm, though I cannot because I am almost entirely wrapped in spider silk.
“I will?”
“Yes,” he says with firm confidence. “You will.”
“Alright then, why am I all tied up, sir?”
Fuck. There it is again. That squirmy feeling. I thought Stockholm syndrome took longer than this to set in. I am reacting to this creature not with the obvious fear he should command, but with desire. It’s his energy. It’s dominant without being douchey. Most guys like this are wearing to be around. The chief is like this, but he’s my boss, and I’ve never dared find him hot. Maybe I would if he tied me up and suspended me.
I’m getting distracted. My mind is fleeing this moment, looking for a safer place to land. That’s why I’ve gone for Chief Connor. He’s the personification of safe. He took me in when every other department was looking to dump me off the books. He would not be happy with what is going on now.
“Humans are not supposed to know we exist,” Order says. “First there was one of you, and now there are two. I am trying to determine if we need more than one.”
“Oh, so this is you threatening to kill me?” I get more than a touch of fear in my voice, though I intended to sound strong and brave.
He reaches out and touches me with one of his hands. The top two are working on suspending me from a hook welded to the ceiling.
“Not kill you. Keep you.”
Oh my god. There it goes again, that flush of desire. The way he says keep you. It gives me the kind of feelings I haven’t had in years, or maybe ever. His gaze is intense, his voice is deep, and his silk is snug and I’m starting to feel all cozy in a way I definitely shouldn’t.
“Mkay. Alright. Okay. Well, I don’t think you can keep me, sir. As you’re probably aware, people are expected to keep themselves mostly these days. This is what we call kidnapping, and it’s illegal. So I’m going to need you to unwind this cozy hammock and let me go here.”
“Later,” he says. “When I’m done examining you.”
“Examining me. For what?”
“You’re wounded.”
“I was wounded a long time ago, and I’ve healed.”
“Not all the way,” he says, far too perceptively. He’s rude. Or he would be rude, if he were a normal man and thought normally. I am willing to bet that his mind is as strange as his physiology.
“As much as I am going to.”
“I do not know if that is true either,” he says, as if he knows something I do not. Six hands are upon me. Six strong, supporting hands, reaching around my ass, lifting me up, spreading my legs. He can manipulate his web to suit him. It sticks to me, but not to him. I am fascinated and horrified as this strange creature subjects me to an inspection of a kind I never imagined I would experience.
I should be fighting more, resisting more, but I think I am as interested in him as he is in me. I do not believe in the supernatural. I think he’s something more pedestrian and twisted than that. I think he’s an experiment.
“What made you? How did you…”
“These are not questions I wish you to be burdened with the answers to. It is best you never understand anything about my origins.”
Well, that just made me more curious than ever.
Order turns his bright blue eyes back to me. “Will you give up this quest, broken human? Will you be able to put your questions aside? Or are you now absolutely consumed with curiosity that will forever lead you into a state of captivity?”
I love the way he talks. There’s something old fashioned and formal about it, like he comes from another time. But there’s also elegance and intelligence to it.
It’s been too long since I got laid. That’s my problem. I should be talking my way out of this situation ASAP and then calling for backup. I guess he knows that. I guess that’s why he’s not letting me go.
“I can let things slide,” I tell him. “Your secret can be safe with me.”
“Can. Such a qualifying little word,” he observes. Two of his hands are cupping my ass. I should tell him no. I should make him stop. I should ascertain if he respects my agency as a woman. Or I could let him have his way with me. That’s also an option.
I don’t stop him from touching me because I don’t want to stop him. I want to know what he intends to do with me. Being here, trapped in a web, it doesn’t feel like real life. It doesn’t feel like this counts.