Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
My orgasm comes on fast and strong and I’m slipping my fingers in a messy swirl around her clit as I spill into her. She comes quickly, her cries joining my own, our bodies moving in unison until we finally come to a stop.
“Crane,” she whispers to me, her forehead pressed against my shoulder. I’m still holding her against the wall. I don’t want to let her go, I don’t want to slip out of her. I just want to stay inside her for as long as possible. I’m worried that I’ll never have her like this, mine and naked and raw, ever again.
“Kat,” I say to her, still catching my breath. I place a kiss on the top of her head. “What happens if you become my new addiction?”
She lifts her head to give me a lazy smile. “I’ll be naked a lot more.”
Chapter 27
Kat
Friday night is upon me in a flash. The entire week was a blur for me, a heady mix of sex with Crane, which happened as frequently as possible, most often in the school stables, though once on his desk in the empty classroom and once against a tree in the woods. With each and every time that I submitted to him, succumbed to his wants and desires and deviant ways, I felt that energy inside me grow. I felt it bond me and Crane together, fusing us. It may not have been blood magic, but it was an exchange of something almost as powerful that is binding in its own way when it comes to two witches in the throes of ecstasy.
But where I’ve felt more than connected to Crane, Brom has remained an enigma. He’s already moved into the dormitories. I suppose it’s easy when you don’t have a lot of things to bring with you, but regardless, it did feel quick, like his parents couldn’t wait to get rid of him. Which might have been the case. As a result, I haven’t seen him around all that much aside from being in a few classes with him. Honestly, I don’t know what to do or to say around him, at least not until Crane comes up with a plan, so I’ve been avoiding him and feeling awful about it.
Because it’s Brom. He was my best friend, the boy I shared everything with, the piece that had been missing from my life for years now as I moved from girl to woman, and he was back. I should be spending every waking moment with him, but there’s that disconnect there. He sees it when he looks into my eyes, the wariness, and I see the hurt reflected in his. But I’m not pushing him away. I’m doing all I can to give us back what we once had.
Tomorrow, my mother wants to put my belongings in the buggy and move them up to my dorm, but until then, I’m trying to hang on to my last sense of normalcy. Thankfully, when I stopped by Mary’s after school one day, she seemed happy to go to the town bonfire with me. I was afraid she didn’t want to be my friend anymore after spending so much time apart.
Mary appears outside my door at eight, carrying a pouch with her with one hand and a lantern in another, a cheerful specter in the dark night.
“What do you got in there?” I ask her as I walk toward her, nodding at her satchel. I feel a little shy around her, as if I’m getting to know her all over again.
She laughs. “Oh, this? Mathias wants me to fill it up with as many treats as I can find. Candied apples, caramel corn, roasted chestnuts, and soul cakes.”
“I’m getting hungry already,” I tell her.
We start walking down the road side by side, the lantern swinging shadows on the decaying stalks of sunflowers and corn that line the road. It’s cold now, the promise of frost in the air, and I pull my shawl tighter around my neck, wondering what to say to Mary, wondering how much I can say.
But she cuts to the core of it.
“I hear Brom’s back,” she says, shooting me an inquisitive glance. “I can’t imagine how you’re feeling. You must be so happy.”
I try to give her a reassuring smile. “It was quite the surprise.”
She raises the lantern to peer at me, and I wince at the light. “I don’t believe you.”
“I’m happy,” I tell her, pushing her hand back down. “Really, I am. It’s just a lot to take in.”
“Are you still going to get married?”
I hesitate, trying to figure out what to say. “I don’t know. To be honest with you, I don’t even know how I feel about it. All I wanted for the last four years was for him to come back, and now that he’s here…”