Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 48193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 241(@200wpm)___ 193(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
The moon must have a reason for all this. She must.
I search the candle flames. For a minute, there is nothing.
Then it dances slightly differently, and the world around me dims. It doesn’t go so dark that it disappears, more so to alert me that it is not the time to look at the present. It is time to look upon the future the spell has shown me.
The first clear image to appear is me, and a second later, Ryker. He stays beside me until we are both old and gray. The sight of us together, knowing we make it many moons together, brings me such comfort the back of my eyes prick with tears. I don’t wish to be alone anymore. I only wish to be with him.
The image shifts, seeming to move backward in time, whirling through different vibrant colors as it does. There we are again, much younger than we eventually became but slightly changed from how we are now. Pups play in the grass in the background. In the distance, those pups tumble and chase until they at last grow older and become wolves and among them a young witch playing with fire. She has Ryker’s eyes.
The seasons change, too. This is more a feeling than an image, but I understand with perfect clarity.
There is a hand on my shoulder.
I keep my mind focused on the images brought to me by my spell. It is the truth without a doubt. This is what we will be.
This is where the future begins.
He is quiet in the present, letting me watch.
“What do you see?” he asks eventually.
My heart swells with this new truth. “I see that you love me forever.”
“I already knew I’d do that,” he says softly behind me, planting a kiss on the crook of my neck.
I let out a sob that’s half a laugh and turn away from the future. It’s a seed I have planted, only it’s one that I cannot hurry to grow faster. It will bloom in its own time. And what must come, will. But I have comfort in the love we have today.
I stand up and the tiniest movement brings me into Ryker’s arms. He tips my face to his. Giddy nervousness overtakes me. “I don’t know what’s going to happen exactly or how we will get there, but—”
He smiles at me. “Step by step, I would think.”
A huff of a laugh leaves me at his statement. “Can we start with getting to know each other?”
“We did last night,” he teases, and another laugh escapes me.
“We have forever but I want it all now,” I tell him truly. “I want to know everything there is about you.”
Ryker thinks about it for a moment. “I’ll start. My favorite season is summer.”
I don’t think I could smile any wider at his admission. “Mine is winter. And—” I search for a truth about myself. “Lillies make me sneeze but I think they’re beautiful.”
“What’s your favorite flower then?” he asks.
“What’s yours?” I counter.
“The tropical ones, like birds-of-paradise.”
“I love peonies and roses.”
“Then I will build you a rose garden,” he tells me. Where? The question hisses in the back of my mind but I don’t speak it. Instead I tell him another truth of mine.
“The outside world is dangerous, and it’s scared me for years now.”
He touches my face with a fondness, staring deep into my eyes. He leans forward as if he’ll kiss me but instead he whispers, “The outside world is beautiful and thrilling.”
My heart beats faster, knowing he’s right, knowing I will venture to places I haven’t known but that he’ll be beside me.
Ryker’s eyes flash with a knowing desire. “This all happened for a reason.”
“What reason?” I question wondering why fate had us meet this way. Why now?
“This reason.” He kisses me with a passion that weakens my knees. It doesn’t matter that he had me over and over last night. It doesn’t matter at all. I kiss him back as fiercely as I ever have, and Ryker sweeps me into his arms and presses me back against the wall in a few hurried strides.
I’m drowning in desire by the time his cock is hard against my hip. I writhe against him needing to have him inside of me again.
Lifting me by my hips, with my legs wrapped around his waist, Ryker fucks me up against the wall, uninhibited and free, and the push of him inside me and his hard body in front of me can be nothing but heaven. I clench around him, pleasure building in me until I come undone. Once? Twice? I lose track in our touch and the heated kisses. In his primal need. And Ryker follows me, thrusting hard inside me until he kisses me one more time before he finds his own climax.
He leans his forehead against mine, my body still wrapped around his, and catches his breath. Then he kisses my cheek and then nips the lobe of my ear.