Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
“Had to do something. Since your mystical senses are like a rock’s.”
“Funny witch.” He glanced around for something to toss in. He lobbed a loose brick near the opening, and some force sucked it down. Whoosh. He never heard it land. “Straight to hell, then.”
“Even a demon like you might have trouble scaling up against that kind of pull.”
He turned to her. “Let’s get you away from them.”
She frowned. “You’ve yet to give me a good reason you’ve turned . . . protective.” She was suspicious; she should be.
“Though you might have no cause to trust me, I’ve never given you cause not to either. I’ve never lied to you, Poppy.” One of Cade’s rules for being a mercenary was to lie often, but he’d since learned his lesson. Rök too had learned.
“Maybe not. Yet you’re hiding something from me. I don’t know what, but something.”
Oh, I am. Time for more distraction. “I do have an agenda.” He moved closer to her, loving that she stood her ground. “I’ll lend you my sword, and in exchange, I want another kiss.” He’d do anything to repeat the one they’d shared, the most carnal kiss he’d ever experienced.
How many times had he stroked himself to the memory of it? He recalled her plush, breathless lips. Her nipples had been so stiff he’d felt them through his sport coat. When she’d pinned her knee to his hip to grind her sweet pussy against him, he’d nearly gone off. If someone hadn’t honked and broken the moment, she might have received him right there.
Poppy scoffed. “You want me to kiss you? In your fantasies, demon.”
“You star in them all, witch. Every night, I fantasize about stoking your lusts and sating you over and over.” He lowered his voice seductively. “You always beg more. Until you beg no more. And I still make you come again.”
Her breaths shallowed. She wasn’t immune to him, so why avoid him? Maybe she only saw herself with a warlock.
Poppy recovered quickly enough. “Always back to sex with you. I’m not interested in a one-night stand, especially not an interrupted one. I’m looking for a romantic partner. You’ll have to find someone else to be among your wild oats—I sowed my own seventy-five years ago when I froze into my immortality.”
The idea of her sowing with other males . . . A rabid hellhound fed a strict diet of cocaine would feel more peaceable than Rök at that moment.
Then the rest of her words sank in. “Interrupted? You’re stuck on this summoning point. I’d bet no one could summon me from this castle, so let’s hit it right now.”
She rolled her eyes. Were her irises glowing again?
He couldn’t tell if they glowed from emotion or from the activation of her curse. “If you’re not tempted, then why avoid me? Every time we’ve spied each other at Lore gatherings and neighborhood melees, you’ve portaled away.”
“Get over yourself. Maybe I got bored seeing the same old faces.”
“You said you want a romantic partner, yet you broke up with that warlock. Aren’t warlocks prime dating material for witches?” Imagining those two together made Rök gnash his fangs.
“You heard about him?”
Rök was obsessed with intel and with Poppy. Of course he’d heard. “What happened?”
“Ixius wanted to take our relationship to the next level and asked me what I would bring to the table.” Sliding Rök a take-no-bullshit smirk, she added, “So I told him I’d bring a hundred other warlocks who didn’t ask stupid fucking questions.”
That smirk drove him nuts. Rök growled with desire—
Rattle rattle rattle . . . sliiice.
He tensed at the new sound coming from outside the dungeon entrance. “Are those . . . rattling bones?” He unsheathed his sword and glanced at her eyes. Definitely aglow. “Let me guess: skeletons?”
“Wouldn’t be Halloween without them. They’re blocking the exit?”
“Naturally. But how bad can they be?”
Poppy’s gaze took in their tricky position. “Historically, if you strike them, they’ll reassemble. And they always come in number and armed with scythes.”
“Fantastic.” For more than a millennium, Rök had handled everything the Lore had thrown his way, as valiant as the night was long, but undead creatures creeped him out. Still . . . “I can defeat them,” he told her, even though he was in close quarters with hungry oubliettes behind him.
His first instinct was to charge the stairs and bulldoze their way to more advantageous ground, but he had a vulnerable witch with him. “Stay behind me.”
“Why?” She reached into her bag for another pouch.
“Because I’m a warrior with a sword. Spare your magic.” Close-quarters battles weren’t her strong suit anyway.
Amusement. “By all means. A male has the floor! Just don’t do anything stupider than usual, demon.”
“Great pep talk, Red.”
Rattle rattle rattle . . . sliiice.
It was showtime. The visceral anticipation he felt before every battle hit him, the reminder that even his immortal life might be on the line.