Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 122242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I scream again, another orgasm ripping through me before the first has even abated.
"Faith!" he shouts when my muscles clamp tight around him. He drops me down on him a final time and holds me there as his erection jerks inside me, his body going taut like a bowstring. He roars loudly as he comes, sending another wave of bliss through me with every pulse of his cock. The feel of him releasing deep inside of me sends warmth shooting through me, stealing away everything but him.
I peel my eyes open, whimpering at the savage look of pleasure on his face. His head is kicked back, his cheeks flushed as his hips buck without rhythm. He looks like a god below me, possession and devotion blazing in his eyes as he locks them on my face, holding my gaze as he comes.
Love crashes through me, annihilating all those painful, raw places my mother and the Bratva left inside me. They fill instead with hope, peace…and him.
And I know I'll do anything to keep this man as mine. Even if it means I have to face down Nikolai and his men one by one. This is worth fighting for. Worth dying for. I'm certain of it.
"I have to tell you something," Octavio murmurs, cuddling me up against his chest as we laze in the giant tub in his bathroom. He picked me up and carried me in here half an hour ago, insisting that I needed to soak so I wouldn't be so sore tomorrow. He thinks he was too rough with me, but I don't regret a single moment of what we did.
I'll cherish it for the rest of my life.
"What?" I whisper, shifting until I'm straddling his lap with my arms looped around his neck.
"Before I tell you, I want you to remember that it doesn't change a fucking thing."
"Okay…" His serious expression sends worry quaking through me.
"Roman heard a rumor today that Tarasova is willing to pay half a million dollars for a female," he says, his tone grim. He cups my cheek in his hand, stroking his fingers across the side of my neck. "We believe it's you."
I stare at him, trying to process that, but I don't even know how to begin.
"There's not a chance in hell that I'll let him take you from me, Faith," he says. Fury overtakes his face, turning him into a fierce, dangerous predator again. "No one is taking you from me."
I hear what he's saying, but the words are all jumbled up and chaotic in my head. They don't make sense to me. Before I can even try to put them in some logical order, my stomach turns over, bile clawing its way up my throat.
"I think I'm going to throw up," I whisper.
"Mierda." Octavio wraps his arms around my waist and stands up with me in his arms. Water sluices off us in a flood. He hurriedly steps out onto the bathmat, jerking a towel down to wrap it around me. He doesn't bother wrapping one around himself as he strides toward the toilet and then drops to his knees in front of it, still holding onto me.
I lean over the bowl, a wave of dizziness sweeping through me. I curl my fingers around the porcelain lid, hanging on for dear life as black spots swim in my vision. Everything feels fuzzy and far off. Light, sound, and sensation all come from the other end of a long tunnel.
I take a deep breath, hold it for a moment, and then exhale. The spinning sensation lessens incrementally. I take another deep breath in through my nose and then exhale through my mouth. Little by little, the furious churning of my stomach abates, and the tunnel vision diminishes.
Octavio rubs my back the entire time, whispering to me that he's right here and everything is going to be okay. I don't see how it can possibly be okay though. One of the most dangerous men in the city just put a price on my head. I don't understand why he wants me back so badly.
Why is he willing to pay more to get his hands on me than my mom and Alexei stole from him? Confusion swirls through me in a big black cloud as I grapple with that question. But I don't feel like I'm going to throw up or pass out anymore.
I struggle off Octavio's lap and climb to my feet, turning to face him.
"Why does he want me back so badly?"
"I don't know, conejita," he says, pure iron in his voice. The same reflects in his sepia eyes as he climbs to his feet, grim-faced and angry. "But I intend to find out."
"It doesn't make any sense." I pace around the bathroom, staring blindly at the floor. "He's willing to pay more to get me back than she stole from him. Even if I worked for him for the rest of my life, I'd never be worth that much. Mikhail isn't even worth that much to him. If someone ki…kills me, what does he gain? I can't tell him where she is if I'm dead. God," I whisper, pressing my hand to my forehead and rubbing like that's going to magically erase the confusion and fear whispering through me. "He's really going to let them kill me."