Total pages in book: 21
Estimated words: 19922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19922 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 100(@200wpm)___ 80(@250wpm)___ 66(@300wpm)
He cupped her cheek, his touch somehow terrifying in its gentleness.
"You asked me before," he said, his voice low, "why I wanted you to be my wife."
Her heart slammed against her chest. Was he saying that because—
"It's because..."
Maika held her breath.
"I need you..."
Here it comes, here it comes!
Was he going to say he had taken one look at her and fallen in love?
Or that she was his long lost fiancée?
Or that—
"To keep me from becoming a monster."
Because she was so...so hideous that even monsters were scared of her?
MYKOS COULD NOT REMEMBER when was the last time he had found himself sharing the backseat of his limo...with a girl who just kept on talking and talking and talking.
"I really can't believe that's your reason for marrying me."
He was used to being feared by everyone who knew him and of him. And when they first met, this slip of a girl had been no different. The moment she had laid her eyes on him, and realized who he was, she, too, had been frightened.
But now?
It was as if the ring he had slipped on her finger had magically destroyed her fears. This time, when she looked into his eyes, and he looked into hers, he could see that she only saw him as Mykos...her husband.
"Can you believe it, Orion? He actually said he married me to scare the monsters away? Does he think I'm a Ghostbuster or something?"
And on and on she went, and when Mykos met Orion's gaze through the rearview mirror—
You picked the right one, sir.
Did I?
Yes, sir.
Mykos looked at his wife of less than an hour.
"Maybe you have a different standard for beauty in your world," she was saying huffily. "But I'll have you know, Mr. Ravensworth. I've got boys lined up around the block—"
Mykos's gaze narrowed. Oh, did she now?
Maika stopped speaking when she noticed the way the great Mykos Ravensworth was looking at her. Could she...did she perhaps...say a little too much than what was good?
"Um, you know what—ah!"
How in the world had she suddenly ended up back on Mykos's lap?
"What was that you were saying, wife?"
"Uh...nothing?"
"Is that so?"
Maika could only gulp at how his voice had suddenly turned silky. Why did she have this feeling that this was the tone he used to use...just before knocking bad guys unconscious?
"Because I can seem to recall..."
"I remember now," Maika blurted out. "I was saying I've got boys lined up around the block...but none of them could hold a candle to you!"
Silence.
Maika nodded vehemently. "I swear it's true!" And thank goodness she wasn't lying about this. "All of them were just...boys. While you're...you're not a boy, obviously. Instead, you're...you're a man. No, wait, not just any man, but the man."
Mykos saw Orion's shoulders shaking at the way his wife was earnestly doing her best to lie her way out of the hole she had dug herself into.
Unbelievable.
With his wife still rambling, she didn't notice how he had pressed a button that had the privacy window sliding into place right behind the driver's seat. And as soon as they were out of Orion's view—
A gasp escaped Maika when her husband suddenly curved a hand around her nape. Her stunned gaze flew to where Orion was, and then she could only gasp again when she saw that the privacy window was up, and when her gaze swerved back to Mykos...
Ooooooh.
His kiss had her body melting against his in an instant, and because she was now his wife for better or for worse, she didn't even have to resist. Instead, she was completely free to kiss him back, her arms wrapping around his neck, and...oh, the kiss went on and on and on, and now his hands were on the bare skin of her legs, and...and...
His fingers traced a slow path from her knee to her thigh, and the sensation was so overwhelming that a sound escaped her, something between a gasp and a whimper that she would have been mortified about if she'd had the capacity to think. But she couldn't think. Not with his mouth moving to her jaw, and then to the sensitive skin just below her ear, and oh, she was gripping the lapels of his suit so hard she was probably wrinkling them, but she couldn't make herself let go, and she didn't want to, and—
His other hand slid around her waist and pulled her closer until there was nothing between them but the hammering of two heartbeats that had somehow become one.
"M-Mykos..." His name came out breathless, trembling, and she felt him smile against her neck, which was unfair because that smile did something to her that should have been illegal—
He lifted his head.
Why did he just stop?
"We're home."
They were where?
Home?
She was still in a daze as she looked outside their window. His limo had just pulled through the gates, and she tried her best to assimilate what she was seeing. Concrete walls, iron fences, security cameras blinking from every corner...this was more like a military compound than a home, but hey, at least it was safe, and...oh.