Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
She felt her brow fly up. ‘Cotton candy?’
‘Sweetness,’ he expanded. ‘You don’t let many people see it. I see it.’
There seemed to be little that the perceptive motherfucker didn’t see.
He nuzzled her face in a gesture of affection that made her chest pang. ‘Don’t fight it,’ he repeated. ‘Let’s ride this out; see what does or doesn’t come of it. Can you agree to do that?’
She watched him, her gaze hawklike in its predatory intensity. There was a hint of caution there. Always so careful, his witch.
Ripper thought it ironic that many townsfolk believed her to be reckless. In truth, there were no impulsive or ill-thought-out moves with Emberlyn. She did everything with purpose.
That cautiousness stemmed from having no one at her back, he supposed. You could never afford to set a foot wrong when there was nobody to catch you if you fell.
She had him now. Fuck, she’d ‘had’ him for weeks. He just hadn’t seen it.
Now, he could no longer deny or ignore that – to put it simply – he was fucked. Totally fucked. All caught up in his witch’s web . . . and completely okay with it.
Ripper had fallen asleep beside her with no idea how she’d react to what it signified. Given that she’d been heavily involved with a werewolf before and things had later gone tits up, he hadn’t known what reaction to expect from her. His witch was handling it as calmly as she did everything else. But . . . she was leery.
Of course she was.
Emberlyn had been let down one too many times by one too many people. They were all fuckers, in his opinion. They’d made it so that she was so unused to people wanting to keep her around for good that she now struggled to believe he wasn’t going anywhere. He couldn’t make her any promises, because he had no idea if they’d work in the long-run. But he didn’t foresee it going to shit.
While he had known in the beginning that he wouldn’t be able to have her only once, he hadn’t anticipated that he’d come to want more. But the pull between them . . . there was no ‘getting used to it’, no softening its hard edges, no developing an immunity to it. Because it had tied them.
There had been only two other women he’d felt something real for. But it was more intense with Emberlyn. More defined. More set. She meant something to him. Held an endless fascination for him.
She had so many layers. Some tough, some vulnerable. And when she allowed him to see flashes of those vulnerabilities – and she really did allow it; there were no accidental slips with Emberlyn – it got to him.
She was his equal in every way. She didn’t fear him. Didn’t pander to him. Didn’t treat him like he was an Alpha. And she made no compunction about speaking her mind around him. Hell, she’d once fucking threatened him.
More, she entrusted him with the part of her who liked being taken in bed. She’d trusted him with a secret that few knew. She’d let him in little by little, found her way past his every defense, and now it was too late for them to go back. They could only go forward and let it all play out. ‘You had to know we were heading in this direction, baby.’
Unfolding her arms, she set her hands on her hips. ‘I wasn’t sure you’d want anything serious just yet.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because of all that crap with CeCe.’
‘You don’t think I still want her, do you?’
‘No. But when a person you care about kills what you feel for them, it doesn’t exactly leave you in the mood to begin a full-on relationship with someone else.’
‘Maybe that’d be the case for me if the woman standing in front of me was anyone but you.’ He slid a hand from the side of her neck around to her nape. He tugged her closer, nuzzling her face again. ‘I told you once that I’ve never wanted anything the way I want you. It was no lie, no exaggeration. With each piece of you I got to know, another piece of CeCe went right out of my head. There’s no room for her or anyone else up there now. Only you.’
Emberlyn fell silent, ever watchful. But she didn’t stare at him, she stared into his eyes – intent, probing, searching. ‘You mean that,’ she eventually said.
‘Yeah, I mean it.’ He swept his thumb up the column of her throat. ‘You have me. She never did. I shared her. I would never share you. If anyone dared touch you, I’d break their fucking fingers.’ He wasn’t kidding.
Her brows inched up. ‘Overboard.’
‘Yet true.’ He briefly touched the tip of his nose to hers. ‘Now let’s get off the subject of CeCe and discuss what has you wound tight. It’s a bundle of things that are all interlinked. No one ever made you feel that you’re enough exactly as you are, which pisses me the fuck off. But you know it isn’t the case with me. I make you feel accepted, known, understood – just as I make you feel owned every time I’m inside you. You’ve never had any of that before. Not fully. And it rattles you that you now do. But it doesn’t need to. You’re safe with me.