Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 71832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
"Parameters are important," she says, her voice growing soft.
My breathing speeds up, and I can scent her arousal growing thicker. Her voice is changing, growing huskier, and her khui and mine are both humming wildly. It seems we cannot be in a room together without wanting to touch one another. The urge to claim her as mine grows stronger. No other male gets to look at her. Not when she's mine. "Let me mark your door again," I rasp. "I need to layer my scent."
"Not today." April continues to circle around me, regarding me. It makes my skin prickle with awareness. To think that she is so near and yet out of my reach. "You haven't asked to touch me."
"You haven't given me permission."
"And it'd be against the rules if you touched me without permission," she muses. "So very interesting. Aren't you curious, though?"
My cock throbs in my trou. I'm curious about a great many things, but I need to be certain as to what she is referring to. "About...?"
"About touching me? Or have you had so much experience with female prizes as a gladiator that this is ho-hum to you?" She drags the leather flower back and forth across her lower lip, and I cannot stop staring at it. Or her.
But her teasing words bother me. Do I confess everything? Admit that I have no memories of battles or competition guidelines? That Chalath is full of this information and I am a blank, which makes me suspect I am newly cloned and was found lacking and that is why I am here? I don't want April to think me inferior. I don't want her thinking she has been paired with someone who is a mistake. "I have not won a female," I admit grudgingly. It feels safe to confess that much. "Nor a male, before you ask."
"Okay, so you're just not curious, then." Her fingers go to the collar of her thick tunic, and she toys with the fur lining, her fingers stroking it in a way that makes my groin prickle.
"I did not say that."
"Oh?" Her tone is playful. "Then you are curious about learning a human woman? Or do you already know all the answers there?"
"I have no answers," I admit slowly. "But I am an eager learner."
"I do like the word 'eager.'"
I do, too. It explains how I feel right now. How I'm itching with excitement at this exchange between us. What does she have planned? And will I be able to keep control of myself the entire time? Or am I going to spill in my trou the moment she allows me to touch her?
Entirely possible. But I'm not going to tell her that. I keep my tone cool. "Did you have something in mind for my reward, then?"
"Maybe a little education, pussycat."
I hate the word "pussycat" but I like where she's going with this regardless. Education is important. "I'm listening."
She flutters her lashes. "I'll let you touch me as your reward, but there have to be some rules involved."
My cock has never been so stiff. "State your rules," I manage, voice hoarse. "I will heed all of them."
"Over my clothing, obviously." Her fingers dance around her collar, a tease all their own. "Can't give away too much at the beginning, you know?"
I do not know, but I am still listening.
"And you can only touch where I say you can touch. Anything else, and all bets are off and we end our game entirely. No grabbing. No taking a mile if I give you an inch."
I don't know of miles, but I know that if she lets me touch her, I'm doing exactly as told. My cock aches at the thought. "You are in command."
"And you're not allowed to come unless I let you." She gives me a stern look and taps a finger on my nose. "I might not be comfortable with that."
April is demanding. Yet...I appreciate it. April is establishing everything this encounter will cover, so there is no guesswork. "It will be as you ask."
April stops her pacing and wiggles a finger in front of my face. "And if you tell that idiot Skarr about this I'll kill you."
"I would not. I'm offended you think I would do such a thing." I frown. As if Skarr deserves to know anything about how April and I touch.
She shrugs. "You taters gossip more than a bunch of schoolgirls, that's all I'm saying."
"You make it sound as if you don't even like me."
"I don't. But I also don't know you." She gives me a patient look. "Does it matter if we like each other or not, pussycat? We're resonating, I gave you a task, and you did it. I gave you my word. Might as well fulfill my side of the bargain."
Her words are clinical, but I can smell the heated arousal between her thighs. She might be pretending to be unaffected, but April is turned on. She likes the thought of toying with me. She likes that she is in control.