Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
He strides in like the room belongs to him, whip unfurling in his hand with a dramatic snap. His cloak flares behind him, and his smile is all seduction.
“Ladies,” Bastion purrs. “Caelus.” He turns to bow low before Nicostratus. “My next conquest.”
I groan. “Who invited him?”
“I did not invite him,” Akilah promises.
Veronica groans.
“How very typical,” I murmur, and Bastion winks at me.
“Caelus,” he says, voice dripping honey. “Looking radiant, as always. I could kiss you.”
I mutter, “I bite.”
Bastion smiles wider.
Nicostratus tilts his head. His foot has stopped tapping.
Quin chooses that moment to glide into the courtyard, probably summoned by some cursed sixth sense.
And it’s at the exact moment Bastion winks at me.
Quin’s nose flares, and I am absolutely not panicking, nor fixated on the terrible thought that my punishment will be extended. Just when the month is about up!
“Oooh no,” Akilah murmurs with far too much delight. “Someone’s in trouble now.” She nudges me sharply. “Cael. Put your paddle down.”
My gaze whips to the paddle I’ve thrown up on instinct, like a shield—painted large in the centre is a big fat 10.
Quin’s gaze is sharp on it and then on Bastion.
I very slowly lower the paddle.
Akilah is wheezing laughs into her teacup while Veronica giggles behind her fan like this is the best fun she’s had in months.
I groan into my hands. Bastion looks delighted. Quin looks like he’s going to start dismembering people in order of their ‘charm’ rating.
My king bellows, “How did he get in? I have extra guards to thwart any such entry!”
Extra guards?
Just to ward off Bastion?
A very ill-timed laugh tries to rush up my throat.
Quin pins me with a god-like scowl. And it’s too much. He may as well be having another five-year-old tantrum, screaming MINE.
The laughter bubbles up and out, and oh, I really am in for it. Quin’s eyes flash, and with incredible command, he plucks the paddle from my lap and spins it. “Would you like to tell me exactly what is going on here?”
“He just wanted to have some fun,” Akilah says. The absolute wrong thing to say.
“Not that kind of fun!” I cry, launching off my chair.
Everyone is staring at me now. From the glaring god, to the giggling girls, to Bastion who’s leapt off the dais to lean against Nicostratus’s chair and bet loudly about what will happen to me next.
What will happen to me next?
Quin snaps at a redcloak. “Get him away from my brother! If he so much as winks again, I want a report.”
“And you.” He turns on me with the most wild gleam in his eyes. “You’ll come with me.”
“Fun’s over,” Veronica sighs as I’m being marched away.
And under his breath, “The fun hasn’t even started.”
SOUL DEEP
“You have a choice,” Quin says, snapping his cane up and down his bedchamber. He opens a drawer and pulls out a small box of . . .
I hold my breath.
“We can extend our no touch policy for another month, or—”
“Or!” I yelp.
Quin shakes the small box and I hear the rattling of capsules. Experimental capsules I made—with the best of intentions—to support Quin’s leg.
“You remember what happens if you take one of these?”
I bite my lip.
Quin crouches before me, one eyebrow sharply raised.
I recall that night again. Quin in aching agony as he fucked me over and over trying to release the biggest climactic build-up of his life. He’d been in such a desperate state, he’d missed his morning meetings, cursing me and kissing me as he buried himself deeper and deeper. It’d been something like torture. Until the release. That final, final blessed release.
And every time I’d blissfully come, I’d had to do so apologising.
Quin had vowed he’d repay the favour someday . . .
I gulp and nervously reach for the box. A day of delicious torture is definitely better than another month without!
“Is that what you think?” Quin murmurs, with a wry twist of his lips.
I grab him by his shirt and haul him close, my lips grazing his ear, ending with a nip. “Do every sinful thing to me you can imagine.”
He captures my chin and slides his thumb into my mouth, prying me a little more open. He takes a capsule from the box, holds it between his pinched lips and feeds it into my mouth with the insistent push of his tongue. The wet slide into me has my already heightened nerves leaping to life. My blood thickens with lust and Quin quickly, teasingly, removes himself, handing me tea to wash the capsule down.
I swallow it and the fragrant taste of lavender. Not just tea—a sleeping draught!
My gaze shoots to Quin, who smiles slowly.
He catches me as my muscles relax and I fall forward. I start laughing as he slips me into his bed. I laugh harder as I tell him to hurry taking off all my clothes. The sheets glide over my skin like whispered spells, every inch of me too sensitive, too bare. There’s an ache building . . . Oh, heavens above, it’s really building.