Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“Yeah, well what did you expect?” Sev growled. His black eyebrows were drawn low over his golden eyes and the corners of his mouth were turned down. It occurred to Mia that her big partner seemed unaccountably irritable now that they’d accepted the assignment, which wasn’t like him. He was generally in a good mood when they were about to bring down the bad guys.
“Hey—you okay, big guy?” Mia touched his arm lightly. She didn’t make it a habit of touching her partner—not that she didn’t like to touch him or be close to him. On the contrary, she liked it a little too much. But getting too close to Sev felt…dangerous somehow.
Part of it was the fact that, despite looking like the Devil himself, her partner really did have very handsome, chiseled features, not to mention his big, muscular body. And the other part was, rather than smelling like fire and brimstone, as you might expect, Sev had a spicy, rich, masculine scent that seemed to draw her in. It made her want to rub herself against him like a cat—which was both ridiculous and unprofessional. So Mia usually kept her distance, just to be on the safe side.
There had been exceptions in the past, of course—well, one exception. The day she’d told Sev she was finally getting a divorce.
She had wanted the announcement to be triumphant—Sev didn’t like Michael and he didn’t make any secret of it—so she knew he would be happy for her. It was supposed to be a real girl power moment. Instead, the words had almost lodged in her throat and tears had risen to sting her eyes. No matter how hard she’d fought to keep from crying, the sobs had insisted on coming as she finally choked out the news of her impending divorce.
Mia hated to cry—it made her feel so weak…so helpless. And she hated the way she must look in that moment to her big, strong partner. But Sev hadn’t said a word—he’s simply opened his arms and somehow Mia had found herself plastered against him, crying her heart out.
Her partner had murmured soothing nothings and rubbed her back and shoulders, telling her everything was going to be okay. Mia hadn’t believed him—in that moment it felt like nothing would ever be okay again. She kept hearing a mocking little voice in her head saying,
“You broke your vows! You broke your vows and now you’re going straight to Hell!”
Mia told herself she didn’t believe that voice—not anymore. But she couldn’t stop the feelings that rose in her when she’d taken that first, final step to end her twisted marriage. The same way she couldn’t help feeling comforted when Sev had enfolded her in his arms and hugged her and held her while she cried.
Afterwards, she’d been horribly embarrassed. She couldn’t help wondering what her partner would think of her—Sev had always been so careful to treat her like an equal. Would he think of her as weak and girly and emotional now?
“Sev,” she’d said to him, the next time she’d seen him. “Uh, about the other day when I, um, cried all over you—”
But to her surprise, he’d simply held up one enormous hand to stop her.
“We all need to cry sometimes,” he’d said simply. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
Mia had felt enormous relief at those words—“we don’t have to talk about it.” There was so much in her past she didn’t want to talk about and she appreciated the fact that Sev never pushed.
But now she was concerned about her partner—he was usually so calm and collected but it was clear that something about the mission they were about to undertake was bothering him. Maybe in this case they did need to talk.
“Sev?” she asked, frowning up at him. “What is it—what’s wrong? You’ve been acting funny ever since we agreed to take this mission. And what was all that with Commander Sylvan, talking about it ‘bringing up your past?’”
The big warrior sighed and shook his head. For a moment, Mia thought he wasn’t going to answer—but then, finally, he spoke.
“It’s this place we’re going to. I’m afraid…it’s going to be something along the lines of what I left my home world to get away from,” he muttered.
“Which was?” Mia asked. They had reached the Docking Bay and Sev’s ship now and he paused after he finished opening the passenger side door for her.
“The idea that a male has to dominate his mate,” he said shortly.
“What?” Mia stared up at him in surprise. “What are you talking about? I thought that all Kindred were feminists—that they considered males and females to be equal.”
“That’s not how it is on my home world,” Sev growled shortly. Why do you think there are so few of my kind? The Kindred High Council actually forbid a genetic trade with the Dae’mon people but a few warriors who were already involved with some females from my home planet ignored the edict and mated with them anyway.”