Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 620(@200wpm)___ 496(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
“Please…” She was crying now, tears running down her cheeks. “Please, I’m sorry. So sorry…”
“No…I am the one who is sorry.” His voice felt heavy in the darkness. “I must have done something to make you believe I would harm you. But Terra, I never would–I would rather cut off my own arm than bring you the least amount of pain.”
His words gave her some hope, but her heart wouldn’t stop pounding. He was just so big.
“If you’re serious and you’re not going to hurt me then please…please just leave me alone,” she begged in a broken voice. “Please, I just need to feel safe right now. I need to be alone.”
“Of course I’ll leave you alone.” He took a step back. “I am sorry you no longer feel safe with me. I wish I knew what I did to cause you such fear.”
Terra thought about shouting, “You were talking about owning me! About making me yours and looking inside my head! Don’t you think that’s enough to freak any girl out?”
But she didn’t dare say it–because what if he was just toying with her? What if he was waiting for her to say the wrong thing so he could get angry and shout and throw things or push her around? She’d seen enough men get angry at being rejected during her stripping days to know that anything might set him off.
So she just stood there, naked and shivering, hoping to God he would close the door and leave her alone.
As it turned out, that was exactly what Taurex did. With a final,
“Forgive me for upsetting you,” he swung the door shut, leaving her in the darkness.
Terra grabbed the towel from the floor where it had fallen and climbed into the middle of the king-sized living bed. She curled up into a ball and lay on her side, her eyes never leaving the door. And though the mattress formed itself into a snug nest around her and almost seemed as though it was trying to comfort her, she didn’t get a single wink of sleep the whole night.
30
TAUREX
Taurex closed the door to Terra’s sleeping chamber as softly as he could, then stood there for a long moment with one hand resting against the living bark, unable to make himself move.
On the other side of the door was the woman he had dreamed of finding for most of his adult life—the female the Goddess had chosen for him, the one whose scent had awakened something inside him that he had thought might remain dormant forever—and she was afraid of him.
Please, don’t hurt me.
The words seemed to echo inside his head, each repetition cutting deeper than the last.
Taurex squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his forehead against the door, careful to angle his horns away from the living wood. He could still see her exactly as she had been only moments ago, naked and shivering as she backed away from him with both hands raised as though she expected him to strike her. Tears had been streaming down her cheeks and terror had filled her lovely brown eyes. For one unbearable instant she had looked at him, not as the male who had held her while she slept, not as the friend she had trusted enough to travel millions of miles from her home with, and certainly not as a potential mate.
She had looked at him as though he were a monster.
Well, perhaps that was exactly what he was.
A low, broken sound rose from deep in Taurex’s chest and he pushed himself away from the door, forcing his feet to carry him down the curving hallway before he did something foolish, like knock and beg her to let him explain himself. She had asked him to leave her alone, so he would give her space, no matter how badly it hurt.
The domicile seemed unnaturally quiet as he walked through it. The glow-vines along the walls had already dimmed themselves for the night, their golden and blue blossoms giving off only enough illumination to guide him. The great structural trees that made up his home creaked softly as they shifted and breathed around him.
Normally Taurex found the sounds soothing, but tonight they only emphasized the absence of Terra’s laughter. Only hours earlier, she had wandered through these same rooms with her eyes wide and full of delight, touching everything, asking questions, and giving ridiculous Earth names to every living appliance she saw. “Refrigerator plant.” “Oven plant.” “Dishwasher plant.” He had pretended to be exasperated by it, but secretly he had loved every moment.
He had loved having her here. Loved seeing her sitting on his living couch as it shaped itself around her soft curves…loved standing beside her in the kitchen while she chopped vegetables and teased him about the color of the marnak meat…loved watching her eat the meal he had prepared and seeing the surprise on her face when she discovered she liked it. Most of all, he had loved hearing her voice and her laughter filling a domicile that had been silent for so long.