Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
I swallow hard. “Don’t know what?”
He huffs, the muscle in his jaw ticking. He closes his eyes as he says, “There’s nothing in the world I want more than to peel that robe off you. I want to lay you on that bed and see if the rest of you tastes as sweet as your lips and neck.”
My stomach pinches tight and flips. He’s saying these things that, gods help me, I want to hear, and at the same time he’s taking another step back.
His eyes trail over my face, down to my robe, then up to my neck. “I’m haunted by your taste. By the sounds you make when you’re turned on.”
Heat races through my blood and my breathing turns choppy.
“I remember the way it felt to have you fall apart in my arms. I think about it every day.”
I can’t breathe. I’ve thought about that night too. I was drugged, but the lust, the desire, the attraction to Finn—that was there without the wine. It always has been. I step forward, close enough to touch. “Finn—”
“I’m not interested in pretending I don’t want you, that I don’t think about you constantly. It’s insulting to us both.” He swallows, and his gaze dips from my face to the V of my robe. His hand follows the same path, grazing down my neck and over my collarbone to between my breasts, where he nudges the silky fabric to the side.
He strokes his thumb across the swell of my breast, and pleasure whips through me, so intense that it takes me a moment to realize what he’s doing—where he’s touching. His thumb circles the rune tattoo that symbolizes my bond with Sebastian. “I want you so much, Abriella. More than I ever thought was possible. More than I should admit. But as long as you’re bonded to him, you’ll never be completely mine.” He lifts his gaze and locks his silver eyes on mine. “And I am just as selfish as the males who loved Queen Gloriana. I don’t want pieces of you. I want all of you, and I won’t share.”
Because he looks so sad, so devastated by this, I lean forward and brush my lips against his again. The kiss isn’t passionate or hungry like the one we shared in the lake. It’s a kiss that says I hear him, and I understand, that I feel it too.
When he pulls away, I lean into him, instinctively chasing more.
He groans and tucks an errant curl behind my ear. “I could take you right now, Princess. But I want you mindless with pleasure—lost to it. And if I do my job right, those shields of yours wouldn’t stand a chance. He’d feel you, and you’d feel him, and in the end, it would be painful for all of us. That is why I didn’t come back to the tent last night.” He drops his hand and takes another step back. “Enjoy your bath.”
The High Priestess of the shadow fae is, in a word, a bitch.
We arrived at the temple eight hours ago and were told she’d see us soon. Pretha and Kane left, and Finn and I were escorted into a cramped, stuffy room inside the temple and made to wait. Then we were left alone and locked inside. We waited. With no water or food, without a chair to sit in or even a window for fresh air, we waited for what felt like an eternity.
By the time a servant comes for us and leads us into a vast, window-lined sanctuary, the sun is setting. The sneer hasn’t left her face since we stepped into the room, as if she’s being forced to converse with the dirt on the bottoms of her shoes.
“High Priestess Magnola, thank you for seeing us,” Finn says, bowing his head to the dark-haired, finely dressed female before us. She’s seated on an ornate throne of sorts on the dais at the front of the sanctuary. It’s studded with jewels and pearls, as is the priestess herself. They’re everywhere—around her neck, her wrists, and up her arms, even woven into her hair.
“Finnian,” she says, inclining her chin. She cuts her eyes to me for a fraction of a second before turning her gaze to Finn again. “You know I can’t deny an audience with the rulers of this court.”
“Yes,” he says. “That’s why I brought Lady Abriella.”
“She is no lady,” the priestess says, her lip curling as she looks me over. “She wasn’t a lady when she was a human servant, and she’s no lady now. She’s a mistake.” Her nostrils flare. “Nothing more.”
“With all due respect,” Finn says, but I put a hand on his arm and shake my head. I don’t like this female. I don’t like the way she’s treated us or the way she’s looking at me, but mostly I don’t like the feeling of something crawling beneath my skin when I’m in her presence. Finn wants to defend me, but she doesn’t deserve his explanation.