Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
I returned my gaze to Viktor. Hazy light from the crackling fire bathed him. Yet again, he appeared almost boyish, with his hair spilled beneath him, his features relaxed, his lips soft. Mostly, he struck me as beautiful. A complicated commander with a fierce spirit, a brusque manner, and a downright sizzling vibe.
Gently patting his cheek, I said, “Snarls. Tor. Baby. Vik. Pudding pop.” I should give him a better nickname. Something as good as Love. Err Lovie.
No reaction.
Should I offer another kiss? A sure-fire guarantee he’d wake up.
No, no more promised kisses. Only spontaneous ones. But not right now, when I desperately required a bath, a toothbrush and industrial strength toothpaste. But yes, I craved another kiss. The guy revved my motor, and I could deny it no more. Since Benjamin’s betrayal, I’d been relationship shy, but looking back, I understood my former fiancé did me a huge favor by leaving me for Kami. Our marriage would’ve crumbled at some point. I would’ve remained on edge, and he would’ve continued to be blamey, nothing ever his fault, always mine. Honestly, he had demanded too much while giving too little.
Viktor gave as much as he took and then some, and he didn’t nitpick the small stuff. I didn’t feel as if I walked on eggshells around him.
On the surface, however, he seemed to share Benjamin’s worse trait: a desire for another woman. But Viktor didn’t really want Valkara. I knew he didn’t. He just wasn’t aware of it yet.
“Wake up because I said so,” I told him, continuing to pet his face. “I’m hungry.” The words slipped out without thought, and I realized they were true. “I’m famished, actually. Ravenous. Do you know what I crave more than anything?”
He jolted with a roar, his eyes popping open.
Grinning from ear to ear, I pumped my fist toward the caved-in ceiling. “I did it! I woke you without making promises. I’m a miracle worker!”
“What do you crave?” he asked, perfectly at ease, as if we’d been in the middle of a conversation. His gaze slid over me as he grazed the pad of his thumb along the pulse in my throat, igniting flutters in my belly. “Is it me? It’s me, isn’t it?”
I marveled at the sight of him. He was just so relaxed. So sane. No hint of feralness. No trace of any kind of upset. This was a side of Viktor I had only experienced in glimpses.
“Maybe, baby,” I replied. “Oops. I’m not supposed to call you baby.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I protested the endearment only because I liked it so much.”
“If that’s true, you like a lot of things too much,” I retorted with a tone as dry as the desert.
A slow lifting of his lips suggested he might be about to smile… My chest clenched and my breath hitched. Yes! He did. He smiled, and it lit his entire face.
“What’s even happening right now?” I gasped out.
I remained dazed as he brought my hand to that indulgent smile and kissed my knuckles. “I’m embracing my good mood. You are my firebrand. The best firebrand in the history of firebrands. Am I saying firebrand too much? You are immortal, beautiful, and scary fierce. And my firebrand. You will not die, so I won’t lose you and become a shifter. Firebrand.”
I detected a note of superiority in his expression, as if he truly believed his words. “So you accept it now? You’re done fighting my importance to you?”
“Ja. I do. I am.” In his sprawled position, the Hungarian berserker king was relaxation itself, and oh, it looked amazing on him. His eyes did that hooded thing, and when he ran his bottom lip between his teeth… hello, romance novel hero!
This seemed almost too good to be true. There had to be a catch. “You telling me you won’t heed the Valkara’s warning to kill me before I supposedly kill you?” Which I could maybe, kinda, sorta do now. I’d raged out. Shredded powerful shifters with abandon. Although, I felt no different today. Didn’t feel any kind of beast, griffin or otherwise, prowling around inside my head.
His smile dimmed, and I nearly whimpered, already mourning its loss. “She made a mistake. That’s the only explanation. You won’t harm me. I’m the only one able to calm you from your rage.” His statement filled the airwaves, echoing within my mind. “You will never betray me. Never wish to leave me.” His confidence intensified with each new sentence. “Not just for the greater good, but for me specifically.”
Oh, no, no, no. We weren’t going there. He had a firebrand, but I did not. Nope. Not me. “I was surprised to see you, is all. It startled me from my anger.”
“Try again. Sentinels in a rage-trance do not get startled. They don’t feel a thing.”