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)
The world narrowed to heat and breath.
My core tingled, tightening and spindling with pleasure.
God, he was going to make me come—make me shatter while grinding against each other like two horny teenagers.
My phone rang again, full of reprimand.
“Lucien,” I moaned. “I need—”
“I know.” A low throaty sound rumbled in his chest as he rocked up, pressing himself harder against me. “Me too.”
“No, I mean my phone—”
“Make it stop.” His voice cracked as he pulled my hips down. “You have to make it stop.”
I didn’t think he was talking about the racket my phone was making.
God, if I wasn’t wearing underwear and he didn’t have his trousers on, he’d be inside me by now. He would’ve stolen the final thing that made me innocent and corrupted me entirely.
My phone didn’t give up, screeching with another call.
He sucked my bottom lip as if he was trying to drink my soul. His hips surged up, hitting that perfect, sensitive spot between my legs.
I forgot about the damn phone.
My body arched without permission as an orgasm went from barely there to barrelling through me. I cried out as waves upon waves of pure pleasure made me writhe over him.
“Oh God.”
He shattered my world. My worries scattered like petals. Every part of me exploded with frost and fire and—
A galaxy of cold tore open inside me, vast and endless and white. Heat vanished. Sound vanished. It felt like falling through the heart of a frozen star, power roaring through my veins with perfect, impossible vastness.
His whole body jerked as if he felt what I did. As if he tasted the same chill, the same endless ice. Steam blasted from his skin as if the cold bled straight through him.
He groaned my name, his voice rough, his grip tightening on my hips as he reached the same edge I had. His entire body went taut as a sharp breath punched from his lungs. He thrust up and came with a bed-shaking shudder.
Pain echoed behind my eyes as the waves of his orgasm faded.
For the longest moment, we didn’t move or breathe, both shocked at how this escalated, but then he sagged beneath me and sucked in a grateful breath.
His hands splayed over my lower back and I went boneless, burrowing my face in the crook of his neck, trying to tame my galloping heart.
His fingers trailed along the beads of my spine, heavenly gentle after being so rough. “Who are you?” he murmured, barely louder than a whisper. “How can you stop me from burning when nothing else can?”
Gritting my teeth, I went to push off him—to find the strength to continue with our escape but the pain grew stronger, stealing the glow of my orgasm.
God, what I would give to feel healthy for once? To feel strong instead of fragile. “You’re still hurting?” I asked softly, my heart reacting to his issues instead of mine.
“Not anymore. Not when I’m touching you.”
My phone erupted with yet another shriek, warning that the person on the other end of it was at their limit.
I pushed upward, only for Lucien to wrap his strong arms around me and snap me back down again. “Did I say you could leave?”
My heart skipped a few beats as I waved at my dancing phone on the carpet. “I need to get that.”
I tried to scramble off, only for him to growl. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“But—”
“Whisper,” Lucien commanded quietly. “Bring it here.”
The panther appeared from the bathroom—no doubt relieving himself like I said he could—before padding toward the caterwauling device. He picked it up with his sharp teeth, brought it to us, and dropped it onto the bed like a dead mouse.
Lucien still didn’t let go of me. “I tried using that back in Cinderkeep when I went through your things. It didn’t work.”
“I know.” I pushed against his chest, avoiding the metal disc and his stitches the best I could. “There wasn’t reception there. But here there is.”
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say to me?”
I wrinkled my nose. “If you want an in-depth explanation of how the mobile network operates, I’m afraid you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”
“No.” He frowned. “About the fact that I just admitted I went through your belongings.” Letting me sit upright, but not letting me get off him, he kept his hands planted on my hips as I turned the volume off just in time for yet another call to illuminate the screen. “Don’t you care?”
The way he watched me made guilt flare.
Which was crazy because I had nothing to be guilty about.
Unlike him, I had a life out here.
People.
People who’d panicked when I’d vanished without a trace.
People who deserved an explanation.
“No, I don’t care,” I held his eyes, marvelling at the slight scarlet hue around his pupils. “It’s just stuff. I’m not attached.”
He studied me for a moment as if I perplexed him, but then shutters came down and he asked, “Can you make calls as well as receive them?” He sat upright, keeping me trapped on his lap with a possessive arm.