Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
I start to leave the stream when I hear Bane stand. I assume he means to follow until my throat is suddenly seized and I’m hauled back against him. His erection is now lodged between us, and it hacks away at my self-control, especially when he starts to mimic the path my hands took. My breath quickens when his free palm skates over my shoulder and down my arm. Goose bumps follow in his wake, and I tip my head back and moan. I don’t ask myself how or why he knows how to break down my defenses. I just enjoy this moment for as long as I can let it last. Just before Bane reaches my wrist, he skips it entirely to explore my hip and then my lower belly.
My skin tingles whenever he touches me and I want more. I want him to touch me all night. Forever. But I can’t. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.
“Mine,” Bane says as if he read my thoughts and rejects them.
“I’m yours when I say I am,” I grumble with my eyes closed.
Bane responds by sliding his hand down from my belly and cupping my pussy. He presses his cool lips to my temple just as I feel his middle finger searching for my hole and groans, “Mine.”
“That too,” I echo. “Yours when I say.”
“Mine…when I say,” he echoes incoherently.
Bane finds my entrance, and I gap my legs open a little wider when he presses against it in silent demand. My pussy yields to him and I do too by doing the unthinkable. I turn my head and lift onto my toes to reach his lips. Bane lowers his head to meet me halfway, and I can feel the last of my walls crumbling the second our lips meet. His tongue sweeps inside my mouth, and my eagerness to feel him inside of me grows.
I hear a moan that I think comes from me, and a chuff in the distance answers back, followed by the soft thump of paws hitting the damn ground. I turn my head with a gasp to see a fucking bear about a hundred feet away approaching the stream.
It’s probably just thirsty and not hunting for food, but I’m not willing to take that chance.
I twist in Bane’s hold and say to him, “We’ve got to go.”
We quickly grab our clothes but don’t bother putting them on as we leave the stream before the bear notices us. Another squall arrives, and the rain begins again before we make it back to the cave. Bane and I are trapped under the storms for two more days.
As soon as the rain stops on the third day, I make my second attempt to escape the cave while Bane is away relieving himself. And for the second time, Bane finds and drags me back to the cave. He actually has my hair in a vise grip as he drags me screaming back inside, and the idea of what this must look like is almost as upsetting as the fact that it’s actually happening.
He’s gone full fucking caveman.
The only thing missing is his club and a loincloth.
As soon as he releases me, I jump to my feet with an agility that would make Khalil beat his chest with pride, and then I jump on Bane, digging my claws into his face as I try my best to gouge out his eyes. “Don’t you dare do that to me again!” I screech. “I’m going back!”
The initial shock of my weight throws off his balance, and his back collides with the cave wall, but he quickly recovers and plucks me from the front of his body by my nape before dropping me to the ground.
I’m breathing hard, and he’s barely winded.
“Told you. Cabin not safe. Mine stay.”
“And I told you that if Thorin and Khalil are in danger, I have to go back. I have to warn them. It’s bad enough you won’t tell me why.”
“Trust.”
“Trust is earned.” Bane makes a sound of frustration and tries to walk away, but I catch his arm and he lets me stop him. “Please,” I say in a softer tone. “At least let me talk to Zeke. I need to know he’s okay.” I place a palm on his cheek when he still doesn’t respond. “It doesn’t have to be forever. We’ll see each other again.”
If Bane is right about the cabin being unsafe, it’s more than just a promise. It’s inevitable.
“Stay,” he finally says, “and I’ll go…Au-re-li-a.”
“Okay,” I agree, even though I want to ask him why he believes the cabin is unsafe. Bane didn’t say Khalil or Thorin. He said the cabin. What does he know? What does Zeke know? “I’ll stay in the cave.”
Bane lowers himself until he’s sitting on his heels with his knees digging into the ground. I lower myself too until I’m kneeling in front of him. I don’t know if I’m supposed to do something, but it feels important that I be as close as possible. His palms are resting on his strong thighs, and he’s staring at me like he knows I’m lying but is choosing to trust me anyway.