Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
The other one came free with ease as she worked the fingers loose. Her breath was a soft pant as she met his gaze and lifted the glove free. She swallowed, her pulse a tempo against her throat and her core tightening with the intensity of his gaze.
“No one has ever willingly removed my gloves.”
She slid her hand over his. Hers were practically dainty in comparison. Short and thin. Thieving hands. Meant to pluck unsuspecting goods from pockets and open bank vaults and pick locks. The same hands she’d used to pluck out his heart, which he now offered without a thought.
She drew her other hand to his. Their palms splayed out before them. “I think your hands are perfect.”
He threaded their fingers together and brought them toward his face, planting a kiss on each individual knuckle. “My hands are very dangerous, but so are yours.”
“They can be.”
“Mmm,” he said, bringing her thumb to his mouth and sucking it in. His tongue laved against the end, and she closed her eyes.
“Your tongue is dangerous, too.”
“Of that I’m certain you will find out,” Graves said as the elevator dinged open. He set her on her feet and said, “But first you need to eat.”
She groaned. “Food? At a time like this?”
He pressed another kiss to her hand and used it to drag her from the elevator. He walked her into the kitchen, which she so rarely saw him in. But Isolde was gone for the night, and the space was empty.
“Even if your stomach hadn’t growled while we were in the car on the way here, you used a considerable amount of magic to portal George to Vale’s.” His eyes softened. “For which I’m very grateful.”
“It was the only option.”
“I adore that you think that,” he said softly. “And since I do not plan to let you out of this house at least for the next twenty-four hours, you will have no time to steal anything to replenish your magic. So food and water and probably some electrolytes first.”
She reached for one of the chairs at the bar, but he tsked her and continued to pull her inside. “I can’t have you that far away.” Then he lifted her up and set her down on the counter. “That’s better.”
Graves shucked off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves before pouring her a glass of water with a packet of electrolytes in it and handing it to her. “Drink that. I’m going to scrounge something up. I sent Isolde and Edgar home. So you just have me tonight.”
“And Walter?”
“I can’t send Walter home or else I would have. But he’s been quiet upstairs, wandering the halls like an intruding mouse.”
“I thought you had Edgar surveilling. That’s how you knew where I was.”
“Not exactly.” He pulled out a cutting board and cut two fat slices of bread, lathering them in butter and setting them before her, before he answered, “The necklace.”
“What?” Her hand went to the little wren necklace he’d given her.
“I may have put in a tracking device.”
“Oh my God, Graves!” she gasped with a laugh. “You’re diabolical.”
A question formed in his eyes as he pulled free the second necklace tucked under her shirt. “You got it back?”
She sighed. “Lorcan had it this whole time.”
Graves dropped it over the front of her shirt. “That sounds like him.” He moved away, cracking eggs one handed and then whisking them until they were fluffy before pouring them into the buttered frying pan. “I’m glad you have it back. I suppose you don’t need the one I gave you.”
Her hand went to them both. So special to her in their own ways. She couldn’t imagine going without them now. Even if this one had a tracking device in it.
“But I like it.”
“I can turn off the device,” he said slowly. “It’s caused more harm than good, all things considered.”
She furrowed her brow and then rounded her mouth in realization. “That’s how you found me and Lorcan at the party. I hadn’t even considered how you knew where I was.”
He pushed the eggs around, folding them over each other. “I’ll turn it off if you still want to wear it.”
“I do,” she said. “They go well together.”
He passed her a plate of eggs. “Eat these.”
She set down her empty plate of bread and took the scrambled eggs. She didn’t stop eating until the plate was empty. She could have licked it clean and gone for seconds. But Graves just handed her the abandoned water to finish.
She dangled her feet as she drank the water, and he cleaned up, washing his hands thoroughly. “So domestic,” she teased.
“I remember what you were like when you first came here. When you didn’t eat and hadn’t eaten and you were still so thin. I remember the haunted look in your eyes when you had raspberries, which I thought were normal. The starved kid you must have been on the streets.”