Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Last time I saw you, you were trying to save my life, thinking I was going to be taken to your city and hung,” Drako says. “And today, you almost killed me.”
“I did?”
“No need to sound excited about it,” he says. “That was an incredibly dangerous thing to do.”
“I know. That is why I did it.” I pause for a moment, cocking my head to the side. “Did you ever really know me at all? Because if you did, me doing something impulsive and dangerous is very on brand. Especially in a situation where I have nothing to lose.”
“You have a lot to lose. Thor’s life hangs in the balance of your behavior.”
“Well, he’s fucked then, isn’t he,” I say with a flippancy I do not really feel. That thought makes me sick. I could be controlled forever with threats to Thor’s safety. They could hurt him to punish me. That is truly sick, and not even in a hot way.
“Do you want me dead, Selene? Have you lost all affection for me? Have you allowed him to brainwash you into hating me?”
I snort at the last part. “Thor’s not really the brainwashing kind.”
“Of course he is. Always about proper this and appropriate that. He turned you in when he discovered you were a stowaway…”
“To be fair to him, I was causing a serious error in the ship’s computers, and trying to fix it was causing more problems. That might even have been why your Vikar ship snuck up on us. We weren’t paying attention. Because of the glitches. Because of me.”
“So you think he did the right thing now?”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean, it doesn’t matter. It’s in the past. I don’t think he’d do it now.”
“Interesting. I think he would.”
“Well, that’s fine because your opinion doesn’t count.”
In an instant I find myself pinned on my back on the bed, Drako’s good hand at my throat as he leans over me.
“You were brave in that cave,” he says. “But there’s not several feet of rock between you and me now. Take that into account when you speak.”
I wish I didn’t feel sexual thrill pulsing deep in my belly as I am manhandled, but I can’t help responding to him with a kind of animal instinct. He is dangerous, he is wounded, and he is in complete control of me. Thor cannot help me now. The world in which we evaded Drako has gone, and a new one exists now, where I am Drako’s captive prisoner.
“What kind of punishment do you think you should suffer for stabbing me, hmm?” He murmurs the question while looking down at me. “See, sweet little thing, I already had quite the lineup of penances for you to perform, and then you went and behaved so badly, all of them feel a little trite.”
“I was defending myself,” I say. “It’s allowed.”
My hips are instinctively rising as he stands over me, and I know he is not missing that motion. I am so wound up by the adrenaline of being caught, of fighting, and then of being captured. All that energy has to go somewhere, and it wants to manifest sexually.
“Everything is allowed,” Drako murmurs. “All things are permitted. But the consequences for them are often unpleasant.”
I had forgotten how intoxicating his presence is. There is a darkness in this man. He does not deny it, as some weaker men would. He doesn’t pretend it is not there even as it is on full display for all who know him. He wields it artfully like a rapier, and I feel myself being seduced by him and his energy without him having to bother to touch me at all.
“I missed you,” I whisper softly.
He looks into my eyes, searching to see if I am telling the truth or trying to manipulate him. Then he remembers, I don’t have the constitutional wherewithal to do manipulation. I tell the truth, always, impulsively. When I am happy, I smile. When I think something is funny, I laugh. When I am angry, I stab a guy. And when I find myself immersed in his essence and remember how the chemistry between us works, I tell him I missed him.
“I missed you too,” he says. “You are messed up in that head of yours, aren’t you. You don’t know who or what to be loyal to. You’re Thor’s good girl, running about in ditches with him, following his every order, breathing in mud if he tells you…”
“How did you know about all that?”
“Surveillance footage,” he says. “We didn’t see it at the time, but we reviewed it later. We had a network of drones across this side of the planet. You were never going to escape. Watching you try was amusing to us all.”
I feel a surge of embarrassment and humiliation. We were never going to escape. They let us run to toy with us, the same way a cat lets a mouse run, because it is amusing to see how it might try to get away.