Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Oh? And is she the one you’re going to choose? Or is there someone else at the top of your list?” Her hair rose, strands lifting on an invisible breeze. “I figured you were off on another date or something.” She walked away from me, headed for the house.
What the fuck just happened?
I glanced toward the smiling troop of females on the patio and back to the incredible woman who was clearly pissed off at me. Then the lightbulb went off in my head.
I caught up to her in three strides and matched her pace. “You’re jealous.”
“Me? Jealous? Of what?” She scoffed, but her cheeks flushed with color and her grip tightened on her bundle. “Certainly not of those pale-ass, useless women.”
“Females,” I corrected her.
“Whatever,” she spat. “Vagina owners. Is that better?”
I would have laughed if my own temper hadn’t been swiftly rising to meet hers, and it was. How the hell could she be jealous when she was the only female I’d put hands on in the last—God, I couldn’t even remember how long.
Jocelyn waved her fingers and the door flew open in front of us, much to the shock of the talem on duty.
“Jocelyn—” I started as she stormed inside.
“What?” she snapped over her shoulder, already tromping up the stairs. “Goddess, I have had it with you!”
She. Was. Jealous. My chest flamed with warmth, and it wasn’t just anger, frustration, or lust. But lust was the safest emotion to deal with, wasn’t it?
“Admit it!” I followed right after her, ignoring that both Lyric and Valor had walked into the entry hall and were now gawking up at us. The logical side of my brain, the one that screamed to shut up and have this conversation in private, completely failed me.
“I have nothing to admit.” Static crackled off her, and the lightbulb in the nearest sconce blew. “If you want to spend your time with some vapid, gold-digging girl who only wants you for social status, then that’s entirely up to you!”
Her voice echoed down the hall as we reached the landing. I kept one step behind her just because I didn’t trust her not to disappear down some other hallway if I took my eyes off her.
“You’re being ridiculous,” I whispered, hoping she might get the hint and lower her damned voice. Witches weren’t the only ones with rules, and if Lyric and Valor heard us, then I’d be hearing about this from their mates.
“You’re being a cold, unfeeling, asshole!” she yelled, bursting through her door and heading for the bed.
I sucked in a deep breath and bit back a groan. Fuck, I could still smell us in here, the scent of her arousal blending with the metallic bite of my blood. I could still feel her skin under my fingers, her walls pulsing as she came. Heat rushed through my veins, and hunger roared, sending my vision thermal.
Oh, fuck no.
“I can’t stay in here.” I backed myself out of her room slowly, each step a battle between the logic I so badly wanted and the woman I so clearly needed. My back hit the wall in the hallway and I still wasn’t far enough away from her to get a grasp on my control.
My vision returned.
“Of course you can’t.” She was moving toward me, her arms folded across her chest as her eyes shot daggers of anger and...hurt my way.
“Because I’m not one of Gloria’s picks, right? I’m not the proper little vampire you’re supposed to want.”
And fuck me it was thermal again. She’s not prey. I repeated the phrase over and over in my head as she approached.
Bite. Touch. Taste. Claim.
Stop it. You can’t bite her. I’d drain her dry. There was a reason witches had been the ones to insist on barring interspecies relationships. Witch blood was the sweetest on the planet, and more than one had lost their lives to a blood thirsty vampire.
Did Jocelyn know that? Had she been told what happened before the Conclave? Did she understand just how much danger she was in?
“Stay. There.” I jabbed my finger toward her, hoping she got the point. My fangs throbbed, and my blood thundered in my ears. I’d walked this earth for hundreds of years—there was no fucking way I couldn’t get a goddamned grip.
“News flash, Benny, I’m the heir to the covens and I don’t take orders from you!” she snapped.
My vision returned and I threw open my door with one thought—to escape and save her.
In six steps I was in my room, but she’d come after me. I didn’t need to turn around to confirm with my eyes what my nose, my fucking soul, already knew.
“You can’t be in here.” I bit out every word as I turned slowly to face her, my hands flexing at my side.
“Oh, I’m sorry, you can be all up in my personal space, but I don’t get the same consideration?” Her scent turned bitter, sad.