Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Sweet fulfillment exploded against her taste buds, dragging whimpers and moans from her. He groaned and her hands flew to his hair. Her left hand found masses of thick silky bronze she gripped and tugged as she held him to her, but her right hand fell on his jeweled braid. Knowing the significance of it, she yanked her hand back, afraid she’d offended him.
But then his big hand grasped hers where it rested against his chest and pulled it back up to his head. “Hold me,” he whispered against her lips. “Touch me.”
Shayla moaned her assent as her fingers wrapped around the braid and the jewels bit lightly into her skin.
Dear God she would hold him and touch him as much as he wanted. Now. Tonight. Tomorrow.
Forever.
Kael wanted to go slow. He wanted to seduce her—not just her body, but her heart, her mind. But his body was nearly vibrating with the difficulty of restraining himself. Her lust and adrenaline were heady scents in the air, but nothing compared to the tantalizing aroma of the sweetness of her arousal. Except maybe the deep sense of psychic calm that had invaded him since she’d returned.
His cock came to life, his fangs stretched out and rubbed dangerously against her tongue and lips.He pulled back. When he bit her this time, he didn’t want it to be an accident.
“Can you forgive me, Shayla?” He searched her blue-green gaze. His life seemed to hang in the anticipation of her words.
She was breathing heavily and trembling. Her gaze was just as searching. “You hurt me.”
Her words crushed him with guilt and enlivened him with pride in her for standing up for herself. The multiple sides of her personality fascinated him. She could be both submissive and fierce, obedient and challenging. And he adored that about her. “Yes.”
She nailed him with a stare. “Not just with the knife.”
A single nod. “I know. I’m sorry. I took my fear out on you. It was unfair and unkind. I truly regret it.”
Shayla gave him an appraising look. Finally she sighed. “Don’t do it again.” The cocked brow above her blue eye enchanted him.
This wasn’t a woman he could push around. This was a woman who would push back. He was thrilled. He bowed his head. “You have my word.” She studied him, then nodded. He smiled. “Yes?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
He grasped her cheeks and pressed his lips to hers. “Thank you.” He tilted his head and kissed her right eye. “Thank you.” Then her left. “Thank you.”
She laughed as she fisted her hands in the thick folds of his robes. The delighted sound made his chest expand.
“My Shayla.” Ask her. Tell her. Kael pulled back and licked his lips.
“What is it?” She reached a tentative hand up, her eyes asking permission. He nodded and her small, warm palm cupped his cheekbone, stroked his brow, tucked a thick strand of hair back off his face. Each gesture left him with the overwhelming feeling of being cared for.
It has been so long….
“I need you to understand me.” He grasped her hand and kissed over her life and love lines. She tilted her head. “I want you.”
“Good.” She smiled. “You have me.”
Chapter 7
Shayla meant those words down deep.
She’d fantasized about this man for years now. She’d had her first orgasms at the mere idea of him. Later orgasms had involved the only image she’d ever seen of him—a portrait in which the artist had well captured his powerful otherworldliness that attracted her so.
Not all her fantasies involving him had been sexual, either. She’d dreamed of fighting by his side, gutting a Soul Eater from navel to sternum and watching the life bleed out of its eyes. She knew that wasn’t likely, of course. Though she was trained in martial arts and had taken shooting lessons, she knew enough to know she didn’t have the expertise to be anything but liability in a real fight. But that didn’t keep the violent images out of her secret imaginings.
Now that she’d met Kael, though, and felt the unbelievably intense pull to him, she knew her attraction was to more than just the idea of him, the fantasy of him.
It was to Kael, the man.
And he wanted her, too.
“You have me,” she repeated, breathless as she watched his green eyes flare. “Have me.”
Kael’s mouth dropped open and Shayla gasped as she caught the white flash of a sharp tooth. She was darkly fascinated by this side of him and shivered at the thought that the man before her was not just a man, but a vampire.
Wanting him to know she was serious, she extended her wrist to him.
In one swift motion, he grasped it and pulled both of them to their feet. She gasped and fell into him. “Not. This. Time.” His big hand cradled her face. “This time I want my mouth on you.”