Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“You were late,” Gage retorts. “Maybe you should keep better track of our meeting times. Or maybe you’re too busy kissing Gregor’s ring.”
I edge to the side so I can see them both. Valen’s eyes are on me, his scowl deepening.
“No, in truth, I was busy slaughtering one of your battalions at the edge of DC, the one you sent in to recover intel from the lab?” His gaze flicks to Gage. “Or were you not going to mention that to me?”
Gage blanches paler in the dim light. “You found them?”
“Of course I found them,” Valen sneers. “Your pathetic bunch of volunteers were spotted a mile outside the beltway. They had no chance. You gave them no chance.”
“Fuck.” Gage runs a hand through his hair.
“David, please escort my guest back inside,” Valen says softly.
David swoops down, his wings blowing the hair back from my face as he lands with a thwump beside me.
“I’d rather stay.” I kick my chin up.
“Since when have I cared for what you’d rather?” Valen asks snidely. “Confused little rabbit, thinking she has any say.”
“Come on, Georgia.” David reaches for my arm, then drops his hand when Valen lets out a low growl.
“I’ll see you again soon.” Gage has the nerve to sound apologetic.
I’ve been dismissed. By both of them.
“Well, fuck you too.” I shoot them both the bird (because I’m an adult) and march right back to the elevator, anger in each step.
“Unlike the captain, I will see you soon, little rabbit.” Valen’s voice slithers down my spine as I enter the carriage and start my descent back to hell.
I’m copying the notes from Valen’s book into my journal when my door opens. Valen doesn’t knock, just walks in and stalks over to me.
I scoot back from him, but he simply prowls over me, pinning me to the bed as he bares his fangs.
I don’t even get the word “don’t” off my lips before his fangs are buried in my neck.
He settles his weight onto me, not all of it, but enough that I feel every hard inch of him. Sliding one hand beneath my back, he holds me to him as he drinks, stealing from me. I can’t fight, whatever compulsion he’s laced into my blood keeping me right where I am. It doesn’t stop me from hating him, though. I don’t think anything ever could. That horrible heat roils beneath my skin, my lips parting on a sigh as my eyes flutter closed. I hate this feeling, this cursed desire he seeds into me each time he violates my flesh. Even as I think it, my hips move of their own accord, grazing my core against his hard cock. Shame tries to coat my desire, but it drains away like water through a sieve, until my need is all that’s left.
He smiles against my skin. The bastard.
When he pulls away, his fangs red with my blood, he doesn’t get up. Instead, he stares into my eyes. Hovering over me. My heartbeat roars, and I wonder if he can feel it where we’re pressed together. My breasts against him, one of his knees between my thighs. Embracing like lovers when we’re nothing but enemies.
“Get off,” I grate out.
“I’m afraid you haven’t done enough to get me there just yet.” He grins, his tongue grazing across his lips as he cleans the blood away. “But I’m open to whatever you might like to try.”
“I hate you.”
“You’ve said.”
“Where have you been?”
He moves his knee higher, pressing it against my sex, causing the flames in my belly to lick higher, deeper.
“Don’t,” I gasp.
“Don’t what?” he taunts and presses his lips to my throat where he’d bitten me. “Don’t drink from my delicious little rabbit?”
“I’m not a goddamn rabbit.” I try to buck him off.
His laugh, deep and sultry, assaults me, and he grabs my wrists, pinning them over my head. “Perhaps you’re not, but you’re mine. If I want to drain you dry, I will. And there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“You get off on this, don’t you?” I glare at him.
“On you whimpering and squirming beneath me?” He moves his hips, his thick cock pressing against my clit. “I do very much enjoy it. Having you at my mercy.”
“I should’ve let you die.” Hot tears sting behind my eyes even as my back arches.
“Yes.” He nuzzles my throat again, his lips whispering against my skin. Goose bumps erupt wherever he touches, my body reacting though my mind is screaming bloody murder.
When he meets my gaze, his coldness is gone. For a moment, I see more. Heat. The raw sort that makes reasonable people do decidedly unreasonable things. His desire is etched in his handsome face, in the way his gaze lingers on my lips. In the way his need mirrors my own.
Then, in another tiny shard of a moment, it’s gone. In its place, his usual mocking smirk. “Tell me, little rabbit, what did Fatima say to you?”