Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Her hand once again planted over my mouth, eyeing the door. “Have you no shame?”
I just shook my head and licked her palm.
She squirmed and let me go.
“Luxin?” Uncle Wen’s gruff voice came again. “I’m so sorry to disturb you but—”
“I’ll join you for dinner soon, Uncle Wen,” I cut him off, withdrawing from Rook before pushing back in.
“Dinner? It’s way past dinner, I’m afraid.”
Rook shuddered with pleasure even while glowering at me. “You’re going to hell.”
“Pretty sure hell lives in my blood,” I purred, thrusting deep. “Does that make me the devil?”
Another knock.
Whisper muttered something in panther speak and leapt to the floor. Prowling across the room, he took up guard position just in case Uncle Wen was stupid enough to break in.
He knocked again. Loudly.
Whisper growled.
I rocked into Rook, slow and silent, just daring her to stop me.
She shivered as her eyes fluttered to half-mast, surrendering to me completely.
“Luxin...I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t urgent.”
“Fuck, he’s not going to go away is he?” I fought my body’s urge to keep going. Raising my voice so he could hear me, I asked, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Someone is here to see you.”
I froze.
The air temperature shot up twenty degrees.
“What do you mean someone is here to see me?”
Was it Marcus?
Would he dare come to Ashfall Cliff so soon? It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out where I’d fled to and...why the hell wouldn’t he come? In his mind, I was on death’s door and the sooner he recaptured me, the sooner I could be put back in chains.
Planting my hands against the mattress, I went to push off Rook—
“Actually, I misspoke,” Uncle Wen shouted quickly as if he wanted to get it over with. “He’s not here to see you but to see Miss Rook.”
“What?!”
Rook gasped as I withdrew—making both of us wince.
He?
Who the fuck was he?
“Oh no...” Rook gasped. “He wouldn’t...would he?”
“Who wouldn’t?” Ugly jealousy tore through me. If there were bonsai in here, they would be ashes.
“He’s waiting in the Dragon Courtyard,” Uncle Wen said. “He refused to leave, even though it’s almost one in the morning. Mei wanted to throw him off the cliff but...he kept saying he’d shoot anyone who tried to send him away. I’m afraid he does mean business, Master Luxin.”
Without a word, Rook slid off the bed. Darkness wrapped around her bare skin as she headed toward the wardrobe where Auntie Mei had ensured my mother’s old dresses hung next to my father’s old things—giving us both something to wear.
Whisper grumbled as I stalked after Rook. “You know who it is. Don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.
She shot me a wary look before snatching the closest dress off a hanger—a pretty pink thing with stitched peonies. “I do. And I’ve got to go.”
Gritting my teeth, so I didn’t take my rage out on her, I yanked on a pair of black trousers and a shirt, then marched to the door. Wrenching it open, Uncle Wen staggered back a little as Whisper welcomed him with a flash of fangs.
“Tell him to leave. She’s not going.”
“I’m going.” Rook tried to push past me, already dressed in the traditional gown with its sweeping sleeves and embroidered hem. “He won’t stop if he knows I’m here.”
My entire body ached with fire.
I’d lived my entire life having no one and now that I had her?
I wouldn’t share.
With anyone.
The old man flinched before glancing at Rook. “He’s very adamant about seeing you, Miss Rook. If you follow me, I’ll—”
“I said, she’s not going.” I planted my hand across the doorway, blocking her. Whisper stepped in front of her too—just as jealous as I was at the thought of another male going anywhere near her.
She was ours.
Pure inhuman fury roared out of me.
Smoke escaped, fire surged, and—
A cooling hand landed on my shoulder as Rook shook her head, snuffed out my fire, and kept me calm enough not to set poor Uncle Wen alight.
“Lucien...listen to me. I told you. He’s like a brother to me. He won’t—”
“What’s his name?” I asked Uncle Wen, needing to know exactly who was after her before I lost complete control.
Uncle Wen side-eyed me as if afraid I’d fly into a jealous fit of rage. “Eh...he said his name is Dillon. Dillon Brooks.”
Uncle Wen was right to be worried.
Turned out, I would fly into a jealous fit of rage.
Because hearing another man’s name associated in any capacity with my Rook?
He’s a dead man.
Chapter Fifty-Two
LUCIEN SHOVED PAST UNCLE WEN AND BROKE into a run.
Leaping down the two steps, he bolted around the central tree, flew over the lip of the circular exit, and vanished in the time it took me to suck in a breath.
Oh shit.
Dillon.
Dillon was here.
In Lucien’s domain.
Not good.
Not good at all.
“Lucien!” I flew after him, wincing as the pavers bruised me. I was barefoot but at least I was dressed. However, each breezy stride kindly reminded me I wasn’t wearing underwear. “Lucien! Get back here!”