Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“We can go wherever you wish.”
We talked about the date while we weaved through campus, picking up looks. Everywhere Lucien went he got stares. Whether it was because of how he dressed, or that he was one of the most gorgeous men anyone would see in real life. Or both. I couldn’t stand next to him without being in the spotlight of a dozen pairs of eyes. And jealousy was in every one of them.
Soon the music hall came into view. There weren’t that many people loitering around the Royal-only eating spot, but those that were there were already preoccupied with some interesting reading.
I couldn’t hold back my smile as we slinked up to the tree. It was perfectly planted to block us from view while allowing us to overhear and see everything on the raised balcony.
Lucien leaned against the bark—one foot bent and resting on the tree. He wore all black that morning. Black tailcoat, black pants, and a black stud through his ear—adding an air of bad-boy sexiness that he couldn’t shake for all that he called me lady, kissed my knuckles, and was more polite and kind to me than anyone had been in my life.
There was a devil under the gentleman. He couldn’t be hidden.
My legs moved toward him on their own power. Lucien raised a brow as I molded myself to him, running my hands down his chest, his abs, his thighs... and spreading his legs to interlace mine with his.
As naturally as breathing, I closed the distance, pressing my lips to his.
Lucien groaned like the act hurt him. Burned him. As though I was the sun come to steal all those years spent without me, and return him to where he belonged. In this afterlife with me.
The briefest pause, then he snapped me around, throwing me against the tree. I moaned loud and wanton as his mouth devoured me. Lips bruising. Tongues tangling. Breaths mingling. Kissing Lucien was like sticking my finger in an electric socket. I knew I’d never survive him, but for the time he’d overtook my senses, I never felt more alive.
I broke away gasping. Lucien didn’t stop.
Nipping and kissing his way down, a soft “oh” escaped me when his canines lightly scraped my throat.
My fingers curled on the nape of his neck. “Have you ever bit anyone with those fangs?”
“Naturally.”
“Bite me.” It was out of my mouth before I thought about it. “Go ahead, Lucien. I want you to.”
“Luna, I...” He fixed on my neck, licking his lips. Lucien gazed at me like I was a shiny red apple, begging for a bite.
Breathing me in, Lucien licked the vein pulsing beneath my skin.
“I can’t,” he said, shaking himself. “I get... carried away. Trust me, this isn’t the time or place to do this.”
“Tonight is the time.” I traced the line of his jaw, leading up to his lips, and those sharpened canines. “You pick the place.”
“Don’t ask for this unless you truly want it.” His eyes darkened. “Because I won’t hold back.”
“I’ve never asked you to.”
Lucien untangled from me. It brought me no small amount of pleasure to see the bulge in his pants.
“They should be here soon,” I said, rising on tiptoe to hawk-watch the door. “They come every morning because heaven forfend they eat in the café with the serfs— Look,” I hissed. “There they are.”
Piper, Everleigh, Saylor, and Katie blew onto the balcony with a crowd of sophomore girls trailing them.
I clicked my tongue. “I guessed that Gabriella would stay home to get pampered and babied rather than let anyone see she got her ass kicked again, but I’m still pissed she’s missing this.”
“What exactly is she missing?”
“Patience, my Lucien.” Saylor and the others slowed when they saw the stacks of paper weighted down on their favorite table. “Won’t be long now. Seconds, in fact.”
“What’s this?” Piper asked.
The students milling about watched the group and suddenly dropped their conversations to whispers.
Katie pushed through them and picked one up. “What the hell? It’s a truth list. But I thought those were over since Ashton...”
Since Ashton was murdered. The guy everyone thought was behind the lists. It didn’t affect my plans that they’d all figure out he didn’t. That’s just more blame and pressure brought against Wesley, Levi, and Owen. They sent an angry mob after the wrong guy and now he was dead. Most likely killed by one of them.
“Who is it about this time?” Everleigh asked, gliding to her chair.
I wished I could use another word. The fact of life was that Everleigh Starling moved like a model and a dancer’s love child. She was the most glamorous person I’d laid eyes on. Some would say more glamorous than Saylor—if not for Saylor’s unrelenting confidence. Your eyes just kept going back to the woman who owned the world and knew it.