Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“I think it’s subjective, I think people can feel it differently, depending on certain things.” She glanced at him over her shoulder, her eyes all warm and languid. “I don’t need you to tell me you love me. I don’t expect you to suddenly feel something you haven’t experienced in a long time and, due to your experiences—because let’s face it, they’re probably to blame for you shutting down in so many ways—might never experience again.”
“What do you need?”
“Probably the same things you’d say you need from me. Loyalty. Trust. Respect. Total commitment. What? What’s funny?”
He couldn’t wipe the amused smile from his face. “What I want from you is nowhere near as reasonable. Oh sure, I want all those things you just listed. But I want more. I want you utterly addicted to me. I want you to be as obsessed with me as I am with you. I want to be the only thing you need.” He scraped his teeth over the crook of her neck. “I want to be the keeper of your soul.”
“And yet, you confessed to me just what exactly can happen to a soul you own when its body fails. You could have kept that from me. You didn’t. Why?”
“I wish I could say it was simply because I knew that it would be unfair to you. But I’m not that noble. The truth is . . . I want you to trust me to keep your soul safe, not trust only the parts of me you know.”
Her eyes lit with understanding.
“You have the whole picture now in all its dark glory. I can’t imagine that you’d be keen to hand me full rights to your soul, given who and what I am. But I won’t give up trying to get those rights from you, Wynter. I can’t. Not even if it makes me a greedy, selfish, unreasonable bastard. I meant it when I said I can’t lose you. I’ll do what it takes to guarantee that I won’t. But we’re not going to talk more about that tonight.” Purely because this was the least likely time that she’d agree to sell him her soul.
“We’re not?”
“No. We’re going to sleep. You’ve had a long, strange day. You need to rest.”
She settled her head onto the pillow with a hum. “I also need you to stop teasing the everloving shit out of me during sex. But I don’t suppose that you will, will you?”
He felt his lips twitch. “It’s highly unlikely.”
She huffed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Gathering together some of the papers on his desk, Cain looked up as a knock came at the ledger room door. “Yes?”
Maxim stepped into the room. “You have a visitor, Sire. It’s Ishtar.”
Cain felt his brow furrow. “And she hasn’t barged her way inside?”
“No, she easily agreed to wait for an invitation from you.”
“That makes me feel nothing but suspicious.”
Maxim gave him a “same here” look. “Perhaps the recent punishment you administered worked better than anyone could have hoped.”
“Perhaps.” Stranger things had happened than Ishtar choosing to toe the line. “Escort her inside.”
Maxim nodded and then left.
Cain tucked away his papers in the drawer of his desk, out of sight. Call him paranoid, but he trusted very few people with his private business. Ishtar wasn’t one of them.
Soon, Maxim returned and waved Ishtar into the room. She elegantly strolled inside, her expression soft and uncharacteristically warm.
Cain’s skin prickled with unease, and his creature eyed her with both suspicion and distaste.
Maxim left just as she very gracefully lowered herself on the seat that was situated on the other side of Cain’s desk.
He sank back in his chair. “What brings you here?”
“I have not come to gloat, if that is what you are thinking.”
He double-blinked. “Gloat?”
“I’m not that much of a bitch. Okay, perhaps I am. But I am not so cruel that I would take any pleasure in what transpired last night.”
Utterly lost, he merely stared at her.
“I realize that you are hardly likely to confide in me. But I want you to know that I am here for you if you need someone to talk to.” She crossed one leg over the other. “I am of course still infuriated about what happened to my chamber but, as Inanna pointed out, I have punished people in worse ways throughout the millennia. I will not hold it against you.”
Still the height of confused, Cain folded his arms and asked, “What is it you believe I’d wish to confide in someone about?”
A line dented her brow. “Either you are being deliberately obtuse or you are not quite as touched by the matter as I’d thought you might be. I can well imagine that it is the latter. In my view, the situation should not have any power over your emotions. She’s only a mortal, after all. But you did seem quite attached to her.”