Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
While her feet are soaking, I get the medicine kit from the cabinet under the basin.
She looks around the spacious bathroom with the indoor garden framing the bath. “This doesn’t look like you.”
“No?” I raise an eyebrow. “What did you expect my house to look like?”
“White, for starters. Not black like your soul.”
I take a clean towel from the rack and drape it over my shoulder. “Isn’t black fitting then, considering?”
“Not in your case.” She wraps her arms around my neck for purchase as I lift her from the water and carry her back to the bench. “Shouldn’t you be trying to fool everyone into thinking you’re harmless?”
I meet her jade green eyes. “They know what I am.”
She shivers.
“Cold?”
She shakes her head and averts her gaze.
I get down on one knee and attend to her injuries, disinfecting the broken skin and applying an ointment before covering those and the blisters with band-aids.
“There.” I let her feet down. “That should help.” Cutting her a dark look, I deliver an ultimatum. “Next time, tell me.”
“Or?”
Here she goes again with that favorite little question of hers. There’s no point in testing my boundaries. She’ll learn quickly I have none.
“Or, from now on, I’ll carry you over my shoulder.” I grin. “In fact, I like the idea. Maybe I’ll do it anyway.”
Tilting her head, she studies me. “Why do you even care about my feet if you don’t give a damn about my feelings?”
“I care about every part of you.” I rub a thumb over the bridge of her foot. The caress is tender, and I revel in the fact that she doesn’t even realize she’s allowing me to touch her in a way that doesn’t involve sex or pain. “That includes your feelings.”
She laughs again. “Your actions say something entirely different.”
“My actions are necessary. There’s a good reason behind everything I do.”
“So you keep on saying.”
I lift her foot to my mouth and place a soft kiss over the blister. “There. Better?”
In a blink, she shuts down. She pulls her foot from my grasp and makes to stand, but I don’t let her get away. My Tatiana is still somewhere inside the beautiful woman with the invisible scars facing me. I haven’t lost her. I have to believe that. Because to have lost her would mean I broke something in my quest to own it, and for a reason I can’t explain, the idea of having ruined something so utterly perfect is like a thorn festering under my skin.
She stares at me with wide, green eyes as I lock my hands around her waist and lift her onto the vanity. The toothbrush holder falls over. The glass rolls off the edge and shatters on the floor.
The violence of that unintentional act rings with the breaking of crystal in the air. The atmosphere changes, all the softness gone as lust crackles between us.
So be it.
If it’s violence that pulls her out of her shell, I’ll use it. I’ll do anything to rip away her mask. I’ll rather wrestle an honest scream from her lips than endure her cold shoulder and faked calmness.
She gasps when I shove her skirt up her legs before spreading them wide. The lace panties I bought with the dress barely covers the golden curls between her thighs. The sight is enough to make me high on need. On her.
Fisting the elastic on her hip, I snap it with a twist of my wrist. She utters another gasp as I pluck the scrap of fabric away and drop it on the shards of priceless antique crystal that litter the floor. I thrust two fingers up to the knuckles inside her, rough and hard.
And there it is. A needy moan falls from her lips. Ecstasy transforms her features as she tilts her head back against the mirror and closes her eyes.
Her arousal coats my fingers. She’s always been attuned to my touch, always ready for me.
Wrapping my fingers around her delicate neck, I pin her in place as I curl my fingers and pump into her tight heat with a steady pace.
“Dante.”
That’s fucking right—that sound right there. There’s no hiding her reaction in the throaty way she whispers my name.
My voice is dark, reflecting the color of the thought that torments me. “Have you gotten wet for another man?”
Those beautiful eyes fly open. She stares at me with magnificent pools of sad, haunted green.
“Have you, Tatiana?” I keep my fingers still inside her and press a thumb on her clit. “Has your cunt gotten this wet around another man’s fingers?”
She only continues to observe me with a big, frightened gaze.
I want her to say it, no matter what the answer is. This isn’t a truth I can live without. I can’t let another man who touched her continue to breathe. I’ll hunt them all down and bring her little pieces of them like that ring and the tooth. I’ll make sure she understands what any such man’s fate is.