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)
Arching her hips, she impaled herself deeper onto me and I lost myself entirely.
We set a rhythm that threatened to break us into pieces.
And when she came, I fell off that cliff with her.
Only to burn all over again.
* * * * *
We turned ravenous that night.
Each time we collapsed, we had mere moments before reaching for each other again.
I forgot that I’d locked Whisper outside and couldn’t think of a single thing apart from her.
It was the best fucking night of my life.
Chapter Fifty-Six
“LUCIEN? YOU AWAKE?” Something sharp pinched my side.
My arms wrapped tightly around Rook as she struggled to get free. “Stop that.”
“We can’t spend another day in bed.” She pinched me again. “The sun is up.”
“Are you seriously saying you got enough sleep?” Cracking open my eyes, I squinted at the blazing sun doing its best to incinerate my bedroom. “I’m exhausted.”
“But wasn’t it the best?” She pressed snowy kisses along my shoulder, making a delicious shiver shoot down my back. She snuggled against me again, and every corner of my heart collapsed.
She was the only one.
The only one who would ever tame me.
I would do fucking anything to protect her.
My hands balled as my thoughts grew dark.
If my enemies so much as looked at her, I wouldn’t just kill them—I would pull out their tendons, smash apart their bones, flay off their skin, and eat their hearts raw.
“You’re smoking and random images of bloody hearts are popping into my head.” She frowned as she shifted away. “Whatever you’re thinking...stop it.”
I chuckled and shoved away my bloodlust.
Whisper grunted as if he agreed.
At some point, after we’d destroyed each other for the sixth or seventh time, we’d let Whisper inside, apologised profusely to the grumpy panther, then all piled into bed together.
Smacking a kiss on my cheek, she said, “I’m going to take a shower and find Dillon.”
That woke me up.
Rolling onto my back, I dragged her with me, bare skin to bare skin, hot to cold.
Her fingers strayed down my belly, toying with the hair leading straight south.
I held my breath as her fingers kept walking but then she froze with a sharp little breath. “Shit.”
“Shit?” I locked gazes with her even as I grew hard just from the anticipation of her touching me. Seemed I was making up for all those celibate years where I refused to touch a woman just in case I made her—
“Fuck.” I shot upright. “How the hell did we not think of this before?”
Because I knew she thought the exact same thing as me. She was probably the reason why the thought popped into my head—picking up on her worries, and fuck me...what was I thinking?
“It’s not...” I squeezed the back of my neck, doing my best to be tactful. “It’s not that I don’t want a future with you, Rook...I just.” I swallowed hard. “I can’t have children. Neither can you. Not until we know what we are.”
She nodded frantically. “Oh, I know. And I one thousand percent agree. After everything that’s happened...we definitely cannot have a child. Not now. Maybe not ever.”
I ignored the faintest pinch in my heart.
I’d spent twenty-nine years abhorrently disgusted with the idea of having any offspring, yet hearing her say never...
“You know...” Rook tapped her finger against her lips. “We just discovered our blood is corrosive separately and regenerative together. We either have a fifty percent chance we would never get pregnant or—”
“A fifty percent chance that you already are,” I cut in. “Do we assume the corrosive blood prevents conception? Or does the whole ‘we create life when combined’ situation suggest strongly that we need to abstain?”
“Abstain?” Her nose wrinkled. “Eh...no. We’re not abstaining, thank you very much.”
I kissed her forehead and climbed out of bed.
Her eyes immediately dropped between my legs.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” She blinked innocently.
“Like your abstinence can’t last more than two seconds.”
“I clearly remember saying I didn’t want to abstain.”
“Then I guess we need to come up with a solution. And quickly.” Heading toward the bathroom, I said over my shoulder, “Uncle Wen mentioned Auntie Mei has been studying TCM. She’ll know of some herb or tonic that can act as protection.”
“TCM?”
“Traditional Chinese Medicine.”
“Oh—”
A thundering roar rattled the windowpanes as a machine suddenly flew overhead.
“What on earth?” Rook grabbed the blankets from the bed and darted to the circular outlook that peered down the entire valley. “Oh my God, he wasn’t lying.”
Whisper leapt to his feet, prowling to stand watch with her.
Another helicopter swooped overhead, its rotors loud and battering the sky. A third one joined the cacophony, their engines sending thunder echoing around Ashfall Cliff.
My temper sparked.
Heat coiled under my skin, preparing for violence.
Turning to face me, Rook grinned. “Dillon did say he had reinforcements coming. I guess they’ve arrived.”
Smoke curled from my skin.
Stalking toward the bathroom, I went via the wardrobe.