Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Thane stands next to me, studying the details of the painting: deep-brown branches swathed in gold-and-white flowers with a frothy teal ocean in the background. The ocean feels more like a distant view, as if the person studying the art is standing behind branches and flowers with the ocean slightly blurred in the distance.
“I love his work. His art is never straightforward.” I smile. “Did you know he was from Ember Coast?”
“Was he?” Thane asks with genuine curiosity.
“Yeah.” I peer up at him. He’s still examining the portrait. He seems so bare without his mask and buffers, like a part of him is missing. But he’s so very handsome. I wonder if he realizes just how beautiful he is.
I turn away before he can catch me ogling.
“My favorite is over here.” Thane turns on his heels and strides across the room, stopping in front of an oil painting: a boy dressed in all white with floppy brown hair. Gold rings of light surround him, and though he’s smiling, tears are in his eyes.
I lean in for a closer look. “This one kind of hurts my heart.”
“What do you see when you look at it?” he asks.
I pause, giving it a harder look before answering. “A sad boy who needs a hug.”
He tilts his head, analyzing it.
“What do you see?” I ask.
He’s quiet for a moment, eyes roaming the art. “I saw the same thing at first.” He takes another pause. “But now I see a boy clinging desperately to hope.”
“Hmm.”
“Perhaps he does need a hug,” Thane says absently, still staring at the boy. “But it’s clear he has resilience. The world is bright and beautiful around him, he’s upset and hurting, yet he smiles through it. He perseveres because he knows there is better for him out there. He just has to find it.”
A calming silence wraps around us like a cocoon. Who knew he had such poetic thoughts in that dark mind of his?
One of Thane’s orbs hovers above my head before bouncing toward a sculpture of Orvena. She’s a beautiful goddess. All the stories and art depict her as a woman with umber skin and wavy, ebony hair. The stories say she radiated like a crystal in sunlight. That’s sort of how the sculpture looks now with the orb floating around it.
Radiant.
Hopeful.
When I stop in front of Orvena’s sculpture, I can feel Thane’s eyes on me from across the room.
“Is there something you want to ask?” I ask over my shoulder.
“No.”
“Has to be something. You’re staring.”
He strides up behind me, the heat of his body now on my back and his powerful aura wrapping around me.
“Why did you turn Enver’s kiss down?” His voice is low and deep while his lips are close to my ear.
Goose bumps crawl up my arms. “You were watching way too closely.” I try keeping my voice steady.
“Was it because it held no comparison to ours?” Something wraps around my middle and tugs me backward.
Hello, invisible hand.
My back presses to his chest, and I sigh, squeezing my eyes shut.
“Did you turn him down because I was on your mind, Zaira?”
“You’re overconfident.”
“You’re not denying it.”
The invisible hand slides up my belly and palms one of my breasts. I suppress a moan and instead open my eyes. When I twist around to face him, he’s already looking down at me, watching me with heated eyes, as if I’m something to behold.
“We’re not supposed to be doing this,” I remind him.
“Doing what?” The invisible hand cups my ass.
Thane lowers his head, and I angle my chin upward. For a moment, we stand like this. Staring at each other, trying to fight the pull. Lips only a hair’s breadth away.
Then he cradles the back of my head with his real hand, and his mouth claims mine.
Chapter 40
This time, I let the moan take over—even more so when he forces me to walk backward so that my back is pressed to the wall.
He drops heated kisses on my throat as I lace my arms around the back of his neck. As he starts to pick me up, coaxing my mouth open a bit more with his tongue, we hear a solid thud sound in the building.
I gasp and drop my leg. Thane freezes, looking toward the sound. His orbs disappear.
I hear footsteps click along the marble floors, coming from the hallway.
“Who’s there?” someone calls out.
Thane takes my hand, and I immediately feel warmth coating my skin as a guard steps around a corner and marches into the gallery. He holds my hand tight, allowing the whispershade to take effect while the guard walks deeper into the room, searching the area with a slight frown and a hand on the pommel of his sword. His iridescent buffers gleam under the spotlight, appearing more like pearls left in the sun.
My heart speeds up as the guard looks past us. If he takes one more step closer, he’ll bump into us. Thane’s whispershade can hide us from view, but it doesn’t prevent touch.