Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 113(@200wpm)___ 91(@250wpm)___ 76(@300wpm)
“How can you expect me to live like this?”
“Our accommodations on this ship are temporary.”
“Are you purposefully being obtuse?”
“Maybe a little.”
“Loving you both, hurting you both, all while sharing my body with the Brotherhood…no one comes out of this unscathed.”
“What you say is true, if we go back.”
“Running away won’t fix this.” I shake my head. “You can’t keep making decisions for me without my consent.”
“It’s my job to make decisions for you.”
“According to who?”
He sighs. “I’m trying, Novalee. I’m giving you the choice to go back and sacrifice yourself for him, if you decide that’s what you want.”
“Even knowing there’s a possible threat to my life?”
He doesn’t say anything at first, and the disquiet makes my heart rise into my throat. Slowly, he brushes my hair back from my face and presses his lips to my forehead again.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I won’t put you in danger, but I won’t hold you hostage forever either. I just want you to meet me halfway.”
“That might take some time,” I whisper.
“We have time.”
“How can you still want me, knowing that he’s been inside me? Knowing that I’m in love with him?”
“Wanting you isn’t a choice, my queen.”
“Drugging and kidnapping me was.”
“I never claimed to be the good guy.” His hand tightens in my hair, yanking my neck back. “I won’t force you into a decision, but once you decide to come to me on your own—and I believe you will—I won’t hold back. I’ll command your orgasms, hold them back when I see fit, and take my hand to your bare ass when you deserve it. I’ll care for you and discipline you. I’ll love you with all that I am.”
Instead of scaring me, his promise shoots arousal straight to my core. I remember the weight of his hand on my bottom, the sting, the unbearable ache he refused to satisfy until he decided I deserved it.
Until I’d earned it.
“I’m not ready,” I choke out.
“Your body is.” He brushes a thumb across my cheek. “Your skin is flushed, and I bet if I put my hand between your legs, I’d find your thighs pressed together, trying to hide that wet pussy.” His breathing quickens. “If I pushed you right now, just a little, I have no doubt your legs would open for me, and the sweet sound of your voice would beg me to make you come.”
“Stop,” I whimper, my thighs wanting to do exactly what he described.
“I can smell the need on you, my sweet girl.” We exchange uneven breaths for several moments.
“Don’t do this now. Please.” I’m too vulnerable and unhinged, shaken to the core from my nightmare and the undeniable truth in his words.
With a small groan, he pulls away and sits at the edge of the cot. “I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. I won’t touch you until you ask me to, but when you do, I want what you gave him.” He turns off the light, and the silhouette of his beautiful profile tempts me as he glances over his shoulder. “And just so you know, once you beg me to take you, I won’t stop. So be sure, Novalee.”
“What if I’m never sure?”
He stands in the darkness, a shadow of confident power. “You will be.”
4
We spend sixteen days at sea. He holds the pieces of me together after two more nightmares, banters with me over endless games of chess, and makes it more difficult than ever to forget the reasons I fell for him in the first place. By the time the ship docks, the sexual tension between us is so thick it would take the sharpest of knives to slice through it.
As we prepare to disembark, Liam adjusts my auburn wig, his brown eyes assessing the effectiveness of the disguise. “Can I trust you to behave?”
I brush the fake bangs from my brow. “In what way should I behave, Chancellor?”
He shakes his head, a look of frustration on his face. “If we’re caught, the Brotherhood will drag you back to the tower. Are you ready for that?”
It’s a devious question—one to which he already knows the answer.
“Pax is the last man I want to go back to.” Speaking the monster’s name is a harsh reminder of the terrifying scenarios I could be going through right now if I were still on Zodiac Island. Instead of preparing to leave with Liam for parts unknown, I’d be subjected to unfathomable horrors at the unmerciful whim of the dungeon’s keeper.
I hide a shudder at the thought. Although I’m not happy about the position Liam’s forced me into, I can’t deny I’d rather be with him instead of Pax.
Liam tugs a baseball cap over his copper hair, and a terse knock sounds on the door, prompting him to grab the handle of the duffle bag he packed an hour ago.