Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Not long after, when the strength and velocity of his thrusts increased, he did the same, but I heard his deep sigh in my ear when he did.
As usual, when he was done, he nearly instantly rearranged us, so I was on top.
This, I figured he did so I did not have to bear his weight.
This, I knew he did so his hands could roam my bare skin.
What they were doing now.
“Apparently, we can make love silently,” I muttered.
I felt his lips move where they were caressing my neck and I hoped it was in a smile.
“We’re going to be all right, Cass,” I promised.
His lips stopped moving altogether.
“The girls are going to be all right. It’s all going to be all right.”
He let his head fall to the mattress.
“We’ll all be all right,” I finished when I caught his eyes.
“I have never been all right, my lamb.”
Goddess, I hated that.
Hated it.
I gave him a soft smile while tugging on his beard and saying, “Well then, that time is nigh, don’t you think?”
He did not look convinced.
But he still said, “Yes.”
And in that moment, with that single word, I knew precisely why he said this.
Precisely why he did anything he did.
Because in that moment, I knew him.
He read bedtime stories.
And he knew Aelia loved chocolate pots.
He also knew, if Dora told him she was too old for stories, he should not press that.
Further, even if his woman was a warrior, if he thought she was in danger, he took hold of her and carried her from a battle in order get her as far away from that danger as he could manage.
Because Cassius Laird, Prince Regent of Airen, had lived for one thing before, it was just that that one thing was now plural.
He lived to take care of his girls.
86
The Revelation
King Mars
Approaching the Mouth of the Stairwell of the Northwestern Turret
Birchlire Castle, Notting Thicket
WODELL
Mars was not in a good mood.
There were many reasons for this.
The current one, however, was that he could not find his wife.
She was not in their rooms.
She was not in any rooms in the northwestern turret.
And his palace in Fire City was large, but this castle was monstrous.
He did not fancy searching the hundreds of rooms in it to find his queen.
He fancied disrobing his wife, making love to her, then falling asleep so this loathsome day could be at an end.
“Good, there you are.”
He heard these words when he’d descended the last step to the turret and turned around its corner, a corner that hid the mouth of the stairwell from the hall.
Ridiculous.
Offensively, you could not descend that stairwell and know what was in the hall below you.
Defensively, you could not turn and aim at it if it was chasing you.
Though you could hide behind it.
And it did not surprise him such was designed by King Wilmer’s forebears.
He could not think on that in the now.
For his day just got worse, as impossible as that was for Mars to believe.
Because he apparently was going to have a confrontation with Silence’s father, who they had, until that very moment, successfully avoided since Johan and Vanka followed them from the Arbor to Notting Thicket.
“I’m in no mood, Johan,” he declared, not breaking stride, intent to move right past him.
“I’ll take my treasure now,” Johan said by way of retort.
Mars stopped as he came parallel, turned his head and looked down at the man.
“I’m sorry?”
“You said, in Fire City, that if I were to leave my daughter to her own life, the life she now has with you, that you would shower me with treasure,” Johan explained. “I’ve decided I will happily do that. Therefore, you can have those chests of gems and coins you promised me sent directly to Bower Manor.”
“I’m not providing you that treasure,” Mars informed him.
“You bloody are,” Johan spat.
Mars grew silent and stared down at him, making an effort to control his impatience.
It was then he smelled her.
Indeed, he fancied he could smell her perfume from ten kilometers away.
Not because it was strong.
But because it was hers.
Freesias.
His wife approached.
And not only could she shadow herself so others around her could not see (and she’d demonstrated this to him, even if he could always see her, he’d been in awe that others could not), she also informed him she could hear exceptionally well.
She’d further demonstrated that.
She’d make an excellent spy.
Though that would not ever happen.
“As I said, I’m in no mood, Johan,” he repeated.
“I don’t care what mood you’re in,” Johan returned.
“And you must trust me, you do not wish to discuss it now either,” Mars advised.
“I don’t trust you as far as I could throw you and considering you’re a mammoth lurch, I couldn’t even lift you.”
Mars took no offense to the insult. He cared not what this man thought of him.
However, that did not mean he did not have reason to pause.