Series: Charmaine Pauls
Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70056 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“Bad timing?” a man asks with a teasing laugh.
As Aruan’s reaction already warned me that we have company, I don’t give a start, but it’s still an unpleasant sensation.
I twist my neck to look over my shoulder.
Vitai enters the room, an amused grin splitting his face. “If I’d known you were busy, I would’ve waited, but Kian said it was urgent.” He stops at the side of the pool and stretches his neck to peer at the wound on Aruan’s shoulder. “That’s a nasty cut. I’m afraid it’s too deep to wait. I’d better close it up. You’ll have to finish what you’ve started later.”
“By dragon, brother,” Aruan says, his fingers digging into my sides. “I have a good mind to kill you. I told Kian I didn’t need help.”
Vitai straightens with a chuckle. “You have a strange way of showing your gratitude for my services.”
“Get out,” Aruan says in a deep, dark voice. “If you see my mate in any state of undress—”
“You’ll have to kill me,” Vitai says in a bored tone. “Yes, I know.” Turning his back on us, he says, “Well, make sure your mate is decent so I can heal your wound and get to our soldiers. They need me too.”
A muscle ticks in Aruan’s jaw, but the mention of the soldiers seems to bring him to his senses.
“Don’t move,” he barks out, the command aimed at Vitai.
He lifts me gently out of the pool and onto the floor before rising from the water like a Greek Adonis in all his naked glory. If my mind had been too lust-befuddled and drunk on passion to fully appreciate and memorize his tantalizing form and features earlier, that’s not the case now. The sight of him makes my mouth go dry. But fear and shame also pour back into my consciousness when I think about how I behaved and what I was about to do.
Aruan takes a big white folded sheet from a bench, shakes it out, and drapes it over my shoulders. He does so tenderly, treating me as if I’m made of rice paper that risks tearing.
“It won’t take long,” Vitai says. “I’ll be quick.”
I’m not sure if he’s addressing me or Aruan, but his implied meaning sends heat to my cheeks.
To make matters worse, Aruan commands in that very male, very raspy timbre of his, “Go wait in my bed, Elsie. I don’t want you to catch a cold.”
I shake my head vehemently, trying to come up with an appropriate reply, but words refuse to form on my tongue.
He narrows his eyes. His comment is mocking, but there’s a bite to it. “Lost your nerve, mate?”
The heat rising in my neck intensifies. I can’t believe he’s discussing this—that we almost had sex—so callously in front of Vitai, as if it’s perfectly normal to talk about what we did, and that I’m chickening out, in front of his brother.
Whatever mortification was keeping me silent evaporates in a burst of anger. “Have you never heard of discretion?” I snap, and clutching the sheet between my breasts, I spin on my heel and march away.
Or more like run away from what could’ve happened.
Aruan’s laugh follows me. It’s a dark, sardonic sound, saying what we both know. That at some point, if I stay here, I’m going to give in. No matter what I do, I’ve already lost. Like the Phaelix, I don’t stand a chance against Aruan. Only, in this battle, the risk isn’t being dissolved into a puddle.
It’s losing my life as I’ve known it and never returning to Earth.
Chapter 13
Aruan
My mate’s rejection stings. We were a heartbeat away from fucking, from sealing our physical bond. One more breath, and she would’ve taken what can only be hers for eternity. I was a whisper away from impaling her on my cock and filling her with my seed, my mark. And then she changed her mind like the capricious western wind. That I can forgive her for. That I can understand. But not the shame that painted her face red. Anything but the horror that transformed her doll-like features.
Vitai says nothing, but the smirk remains plastered on his face while he heals me. I don’t need Kian’s power to know my youngest brother’s thoughts. He thinks I’ve finally met my match, and it amuses him.
Well, he can go jump off the bridge. This situation isn’t funny in the least.
When he’s done, he leaves without a word, knowing it’s dangerous to provoke me when I’m in a dark mood. That mood is also the reason I don’t approach Elsie where she stands in front of the window with her back turned to me, pretending she hasn’t heard me enter the bedroom. The stiffening of her narrow shoulders tells me she’s aware of my footsteps on the floor.
She’s changed into a pale-pink dress and clean slippers. The ones she wore this morning must be muddy. They’re not very practical for walking outside. Boots are for men, but she would’ve been better equipped for our stroll with a pair.