Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 112500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 563(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 563(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
“I scented you just before we first spoke.”
She replayed their first exchange, seeing it anew. “Am I how you pictured your mate?” she asked lightly.
A slow shake of his head.
Hmm. Disappointed?
Impossible. I’m perfection. “Were you hoping for a Lykae female?”
“Does no’ matter.” His voice went gravelly. “Fate has scalded you into my brain, twisted me forever. You’re a walking heaven to me.”
She could all but hear the unspoken end to that sentence: on the outside at least. Fair enough. Still, the way he watched her with mesmeric fascination stirred heat low in her belly.
No one had ever called her a walking heaven or gazed at her eyes as if they held the secrets of the universe. His coat on her sensitive flesh wasn’t helping, and she hadn’t exaggerated his scent’s effect on her. “What about your beast? How does it feel about me?”
“It fucking adores you. Wants to worship you.”
“As all things should.” Pity her coven didn’t agree. They’d been slow to accept her, clinging to Lazara’s shadow. Ditch hadn’t expected that because Lazara had been so…vanquishable.
“Have you experienced adoration before?” he asked, challenge in his tone. “Do you even ken what you’re missing?”
Incisive questions deserve no answers. “How do you picture this working? A Lykae king and a witch high priestess?”
“Doona.” His fascinated expression turned bleak, and she wanted it back. “Even if I could win you, our factions are enemies. This world will no’ allow us to bind. And neither will you.”
“That’s true.” Based on her attraction to him, he might have had a shot with her in a different world and time. Here in the Skein? No chance in hells. “My poor hungry wolf.” Her voice was soft now, almost kind. “All you’ve ever wanted was your mate, as you would crave sustenance.”
“All I’ve ever wanted is you,” he admitted. “I’d give almost anything to have you.”
Almost anything. She forced a smile at his qualifier. “You would forgive me my foul murders and wicked deeds?”
“Aye. We’d start with a clean slate.”
“I prefer my slate filthy. Like sex.”
He groaned, the sound rough.
The sight of his erection straining against his leather pants made her body feel superheated. As a demon-witch, she was a hedonist to the bone, and she’d never dallied with a wolf. I have to experience him. Just once. Then back to war.
Between gritted teeth, he said, “I scent you. Know what you need.”
“You do tempt me, especially since you and your beast are caged tonight. But you warned me that surrendering means forever.”
“I’ll pleasure you so hard you’ll beg for any position with me.”
“What would you surrender?” She wanted total compliance, but his loyalty to his pack was absolute.
“Let’s discover that together. I’ll know by moonset.”
“Convince me.” She gestured for him to strip.
Slowly, deliberately, he did, drawing off his tunic to display his mighty chest—broad shoulders and rippling muscles with not an ounce of spare flesh. He removed his boots, then untied his breeches to ease them from his narrow hips.
Freed of its confines, his cock sprang up, bobbing before it pointed directly at her.
His sigh-worthy length and girth were almost too big, just barely possible for her. Just barely was her favorite size, and this one was the just-bareliest she’d ever encountered.
The crown was broad, the slit damp. Veins ribbed the shaft enticingly. His dusky balls taunted her to nip them with a fang.
When he stood before her, all beastly intensity, his skin sheened in the moonlight.
Great Hecate, he was built for fantasies. She had the impulse to lick salt and sin from his throat to those balls and make him quake. “Your appearance makes a good case.” She tapped her chin with a black claw. “Very well—we play. Only play, Thane. No biting, no bond. And only for a time, an interlude until we both come.”
He gave her a wary look, a wolf sensing a trap.
“Then we’ll go our separate ways. Or at least I will. You’ll remain caged like an animal.”
“I agree to your terms,” he growled. “Now show me your own body, mate.”
With a lift of her brows, she unbelted the coat and let it puddle at her feet.
“None fairer,” he rasped in wonder.
“Correct.” The night air caressed her bare skin. Her tail danced with freedom and so much excitement she almost frowned at the frolicking thing. “In your letter, you mentioned your tongue. Show me if it indeed has a mind of its own.”
He swallowed hard. “If I take your taste, witch, I’ll never let you go. You’ll ruin me.”
She breathed, “I know. I predicted your ruination.”
His gaze fixed on the V of her curls. “Then take me to heaven or hell. Right now, I care no’ which.”
“Hell then,” she said, sauntering closer. “It’s my specialty.” She planted one knee on a bar and opened herself to him. “Eat, hungry Thane. Lap up your own destruction.”