Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
“I’m not a Scourge,” he said firmly. “I’m a Kindred.”
“A Kindred? That’s just an urban legend,” she protested. “A story desperate people made up to give themselves hope. Besides, I thought all the Kindred were supposed to be beautiful, strong warrior women.”
“Not in my universe—I mean, not where I come from,” Davrik corrected himself quickly. “Where I come from, the Kindred are ninety-five percent male. But you only have to look at my eyes to see that I’m telling the truth,” he added. “See?”
He leaned down, showing her the white sclera and pale blue irises of his eyes.
Sonya took a cautious step towards him and stared up at him, meeting his gaze. For a long moment they looked into each other’s eyes and Davrik felt his heart swell. He wanted so badly to gather her into his arms—wanted so much just to hold her.
If she was his Sonya, he would have swept her off her feet and cuddled her close to his chest, but this Sonya didn’t know him. And more importantly, she didn’t trust him yet. He had to earn her trust and take things slowly. So he only looked into her eyes until Sonya’s light brown cheeks grew dark with a blush and she dropped her gaze.
“I…see,” she said at last. “So you’re not a Scourge. I’m sorry if I offended you, my Lord and Master.”
“Please—you don’t have to call me that. My name is Davrik.” He became aware that he was looming over her, doubtless not helping the trust situation. “Look, can I just…here, let me sit down.”
He looked around the room for someplace to sit but didn’t see anything except the vast silver platform bed in the corner of the room. He went and had a seat on the side of the thick luxury mattress, spreading his legs to get comfortable and trying to look more approachable.
The move seemed to work, because after a moment, Sonya approached him. She even came right up to him, to stand between his legs. Then, to Davrik’s surprise, she dropped to her knees and reached for the magno-tabs that held his trousers together.
“Hey, wait—what are you doing?”
He pushed her hands away, looking down at her uncertainly.
“Giving you a blow job—isn’t that what you sat on the bed for?” she asked flatly, looking up at him. “I’m sure Oozle told you that I’m supposed to blow you twice a day.”
“I don’t care what he said—you don’t have to do that,” Davrik insisted. “Please, stand up. You don’t have to be down there.”
“Where do you want me then?” Sonya stood and looked at him uncertainly. Due to their height difference, they were still nearly eye-to-eye even with Davrik sitting and her standing.
“Look, can we just talk for a minute?” he asked. Things were moving too fast here—and in the wrong direction.
“I guess so.” She shrugged. “You can do anything you want, Master.”
“Right now I want to talk,” Davrik said firmly.
Gently, he took her by the arms. Sonya stiffened but didn’t pull away.
“All right—so talk,” she said. Davrik could tell she was trying to be defiant, but he could hear the fear in her voice, under the bravado.
For a moment, he hardly knew what to say.
She looked exactly like his Sonya—right down to the golden flecks in her chocolate brown eyes and the tiny scar above her right eyebrow where she’d poked herself with a branch while she was riding her bike in the woods as a child. She was so beautiful it made his heart fist in his chest. He didn’t want to hurt her or scare her—he needed to win her trust.
Please, Goddess! He sent up a silent prayer. Let me do this right—help me to earn her trust and rescue her from this awful place!
“I’m not here to hurt you or scare you, Sonya,” he said at last, deciding to get right to the point. “I just want to get to know you.”
She raised one eyebrow in obvious disbelief—an expression he knew well.
“If that’s what you want, then why did you pay for the Supreme Treatment? Everyone knows that package is for club members who want to hurt or torture the girls they pay for!”
Davrik shook his head.
“I paid because I thought it was the only way to have you all to myself—not so I could hit you or hurt you. I’m sorry if you thought otherwise.”
The look in her lovely brown eyes said she was still skeptical.
“So if you don’t want me to suck your dick and you’re not interested in hurting me, what do you want? Why pay so much to get me ‘all to yourself?”
The words, Because I love you! hovered on his lips, but it was much too soon to say them. Davrik didn’t want to scare her but he couldn’t explain the truth either.
If he told this Sonya about his own Sonya and how she had died, back in his home universe and the way he had searched through hundreds of thousands of other alternate universes to find one where she was still alive, he would sound crazy. Also, she would think he only wanted her as a replacement for the mate he had lost and that wasn’t what Davrik wanted. He just wanted her in his life again—even if she wasn’t the exact same woman he had lost. There was a hole inside him without her—he wanted the other half of his soul back.