Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
I arched my back reminiscent of the lady on the couch, trembling under his kisses peppering my chest and cleavage. I asked him to make me feel something new, and Lucien decided to make me feel everything new.
My skin tingled. My blood hummed. My mind wiped blank before the explosions bursting before my eyes. I was a stranger in this body, coming alive to sensations I imagined a thousand times, but never came close.
Lucien picked up the pace, ratcheting my cries to noticeable, attention-drawing levels.
I didn’t care. No one else mattered but us—but him.
The pressure built, tightening my lower belly almost painfully. “Lucien!”
“Come for me, my Luna.” He nipped my neck, breaking the skin. “Come, baby.”
My nails pierced his long coat. Clinging to him, the dam broke, bowling me over in waves of pleasure that popped me out of my shoes and smashed me on the rocks. I was broken, destroyed, rendered into pieces, then made into a creature that was wholly new.
Wetness soaked his fingers and leg—the only evidence of the internal implosion that wrecked the girl who used to be Luna Sinclair.
“Holy fucking shit,” I breathed.
Lucien chuckled. “A beautiful sentiment to end a perfect moment.”
“End?” I kissed his nose, face, cheeks, and lips. “No way. Do that again.”
THAT NIGHT, I CHANGED out of my damp, sticky dress, shedding the remains of Vampire Luna. I took back everything I said, and thought, about Lucien’s nightstalker fetish. It was I who had it wrong. Underneath that beach club where they danced, drank, shed their inhibitions, and gave into their desires was where the real living happened.
Up here where we scrounged and toiled just to end another day dissatisfied. Where we found pleasure not in our own happiness, but in stealing the happiness from others. It was being up here that made us dream of dark, wild strangers who whisked us into another world.
And for one day, that’s what Lucien did.
I hugged myself, shivering remembering what we did on our own couch. Everyone else faded. We made out like there was a time limit, rolling around and nearly falling off three times. No one had to guess what we were doing. Bouncing up and down on his hand while my hand pumped furiously in his pants was a dead giveaway.
The sun going down and movement upstairs finally forced us apart after countless orgasms and thoroughly ruining his pants. We stumbled out rumpled and lips swollen—the reminders of our day taunting us during our silent drive.
I touched my lips, sighing. Lucien thought he was making this easier for me. One day to get it all out of our system, then I could focus on what we had to do. Lucien made me feel everything I’d been missing from lust, sex, and attraction. How could I set aside today and forget about it? How could I stop wanting more?
For now, you must. Tonight is for Winter.
Sobering, I forced myself to lock away our day, just for a while. I dressed quickly in simple jeans and a t-shirt, then stole into the night.
I picked the door lock again. It swung on rusty hinges, pinging creaks through the halls and my pounding chest. I held my hand over it, paper crinkling underneath.
We’re close, sis. We’re so close.
I ducked into the classroom, finding my spot by the open window.
“—got for us, Dumont?”
“First things first.” Dark and deep, Rafael’s fixer voice floated to my ears. “Do you have my money?”
“We’ve got it,” Giovanni replied. “Give us a name.”
My hand was still over my heart, and the letter.
After Giovanni stomped on my heart, I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Luna. There wasn’t lower for me to sink.
“I tracked the sale of explosives that packed enough punch to blow up a Maserati. It gave me a name that Wilder confirmed with the bank account hack and viruses in your computers. Both led to one person.”
The funny thing is, as broken and humiliated as I was, Giovanni’s betrayal wasn’t the surprise it should have been. Looking back, there was something false in his kisses. Something too saccharine in his praise and compliments. I was so lonely, I pushed my instincts aside.
When it all came out, I hated him and myself, but there was still a part of me that wasn’t beaten. I was pissed, hurt, and raging to make Giovanni and Annika feel the same. I wanted to fight, little sister.
Until he came along.
“You’ll have to tell me if this makes sense,” Rafael continued, “because what we didn’t find looking through his shit was a motive. All I know is this is definitely the guy who’s after you, and he’s not done. Wilder found drafts of more truth lists—even worse than the ones already released.”
“The first draft was lies and the second is too,” Levi snapped.
“My contact also told me he put in an order for more bombs. Bigger bombs. The kind that takes out a building, not a car.”