Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
“I know. I do know I didn’t want you to stop, but is it right? What we do together, how crazy we get, is it right?”
“It’s right for us,” he assured her because he knew it was. She was everything to him and she easily kept up with his brand of need. “You just experienced the real me. The deep-down cravings I get sometimes. When the adrenaline comes because I’ve been working and the violence and blood get to me, this is how I’ll come to you. You just showed me it was okay to be me. I don’t have to pretend even when my monster comes out to play.”
“I don’t consider that your worst. It’s scary, but it doesn’t make you a monster. It’s just that I don’t know what I’m doing…” She trailed off.
“We have to be on the same page, Lyric. That doesn’t mean we won’t disagree sometimes, but you have to know without a single doubt that you can trust me. We’re going to have to revisit the discussion on Yaman Kuzmin. I know how uncomfortable that’s going to make you. You’ll need to know you can depend on me to get you through it.”
“There’s no reason to discuss that horrid man.” She suddenly turned over, moving into him instead of away, her face upturned so he was looking into her green eyes. “You say you’re a monster and no one but me could love you, but that isn’t true. You don’t let anyone else in. You’re no monster, Keys. I’ve seen monsters. Any woman you want is going to fall in love with you. If that’s what you’re worried about, trust me, I’m a woman, I know.”
Lyric still had tears in her eyes, turning all that green into liquid pools. His heart clenched, and he wiped at the wetness on her face with the pads of his thumbs. His chest hurt. His lungs felt raw. He’d been tortured numerous times. He’d gone through hell down in that basement of Sorbacov’s school, yet just seeing her genuine tears, feeling her real distress, hurt on an entirely different level.
“I don’t want you to wake up one morning, look at me and realize I’m the default woman just because I love you and you don’t think anyone else will. I’m nothing at all like you want, Keys. I’m not. Every single one of your friends knows it. They made that clear. You belong with someone very different.”
He held her gaze, knowing there was more. He remained silent, connecting them through touch, his thumb sliding gently back and forth along her jaw in a soothing caress.
“These parties? They sound important. I heard what your president said. I would never be able to fit in and mingle around, gathering information you need. You need someone good with people, which I am not. You’ve seen me at the bar. I fade into the background, and I do it on purpose. I could never handle the things Czar expects.”
“What else?” He kept his voice gentle.
“What else?” she echoed, a frown flitting across her face. “I’m terrified of the things we do sexually. I don’t think I can keep up with you, and you need sex that way—you’ve told me so dozens of times. I can’t be around your club without making things tense. I’m…”
Keys took her mouth, kissing her with every bit of overwhelming feeling surging through his entire being. He framed her face and kissed her over and over, pouring love into her. Maybe she was right and the way he loved was fucked up, the way he showed her, but he felt it. Not for anyone else, only Lyric.
When he lifted his head, it was to press his forehead against hers. “There won’t be another woman, Lyric. I can’t see anyone but you. I never once saw those others, not their faces, not who they were. It’s you for me. It’s you I’m in love with. Yeah, babe, it took me a while to come to terms with realizing I wanted a woman of my own.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead and sat up, one hand on her belly to hold her to the bed. “I know I’m scary sometimes because I’m that guy, but you’ve known that all along. I laid it out for you that sex with me would be frequent and intense. I told you I like rough. I like dirty. I’m into kink occasionally. If your body didn’t respond, we wouldn’t be doing any of those things, but you like it too. You’re just afraid. And that’s okay. You’ll learn to trust me.”
He pushed back her hair and bent toward her again. “Here’s the thing, Wildfire. I told you straight up that once you came with me, your choice to leave would be gone, and I meant that for both of us. You love me. I know you do.”