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)
A blinding spike behind my eyes—
How?
How was I feeling her?
And how did she survive this level of torture?
Crawling out from the cradle of her thighs, I didn’t know what to do as she bundled into a ball and hugged herself. A trick of the light made me believe snowflakes twinkled in her black hair before melting like lacy filigree.
She moaned and another punch of misery hit me that wasn’t mine.
Moving up the bed, I leaned against the wall and gathered her close. “I’ve got you.” Wrapping my arm tight around her, I swiped away the hair that’d stuck to her brow. Her breathing was shallow and uneven—hurting so damn much.
Glancing around the room, I searched for something that could cut me—to give her the only thing I could. But the space was full of polished luxury with no sharp edges. Cream leather panels, softly curved walls, hidden compartments flush with the surfaces. Even the narrow side table didn’t hold anything that could make me bleed.
Whisper banged against the door again and I wished I hadn’t locked it. I could’ve made use of his fangs, but I couldn’t get up with Rook almost unconscious in my arms, so I did the only thing I could.
Bringing my finger to my mouth, I bit myself hard enough to break the skin.
Pushing the welling blood into her mouth, I commanded, “Swallow.”
She winced and mumbled something incomprehensible, trying to push me away.
I just held her tighter. “Swallow and you’ll feel better.”
I squeezed my finger, feeding more blood onto her tongue. Her throat worked. Removing my finger, I held her through the last of her shivers. Slowly, the pressure in my skull eased as her pain loosened its grip on both of us.
She murmured something I couldn’t catch.
Her glassy eyes met mine from where she lay on my chest and a wrenching tore through me. A violent yank on my heart as if an invisible thread shot from me to her—weaving around our bones and breath, binding us together—
She shuddered as if the force of whatever webbed between us was too strong, too much.
With a broken sound, her eyes rolled back.
She collapsed against me and...
Passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
MY EYES FLASHED OPEN.
My heart pounded with sudden fear and for a second, I had no idea where the hell I was but...the steady drone of engines, the gentle hum of flight. Still in the air. Still trapped. Still beneath Rook, where she’d passed out on me, who knew how long ago.
The crick in my neck hurt from being used as a pillow and my fingers had fallen asleep from where I’d slung my arm around her waist to keep her close. Her soft breath on my chest felt like a refreshing breeze, and the fire in my blood stayed survivable thanks to touching her.
Glancing down where she lay on me, my temper warmed to wake her. At some point while I’d slept, she’d burrowed into my warmth and fallen so deeply asleep she snored like a hibernating hamster.
Only she could make such an annoying noise and make me find it adorable.
I tapped her shoulder. “Rook.”
No response, her breasts rising rhythmically against me.
The knowledge that she was naked beneath her dress—because I’d somehow burned her underwear to dust—made me harden all over again. Lust surged, erasing the iciness she’d granted, ensuring she was both a menace as well as a cure.
What was it about her that affected me?
She wasn’t just a leash at this point; she was a muzzle and straitjacket combined.
If I had any common sense, I’d end her before she could end me but...
She was just so fragile, so delicate, so mine.
My fingers strayed from her shoulder to her collarbone, falling into old habits of touching her while she was too unconscious to care. Her skin felt cool, never warming despite my unnatural heat.
Biting my bottom lip, I grazed her neck with my fingertips, tracing the faint bite mark I’d left on her from before.
She just moaned contentedly.
My fingers strayed to her breast.
I watched her warily as I fondled her.
She didn’t seem interested in waking as she burrowed a little closer and flung her arm over my stomach. Her pendant thudded against the vitalsync core.
I flinched as the charm echoed directly through my heart.
Every muscle in my body tensed. Nausea crawled in my gut. I went dizzy—
Gritting my teeth, I hooked a finger under the chain and lifted the pendant away.
Cradling it in my palm, I shivered as a faint vibration buzzed through me. The slightest static in my blood—a resonance coming directly from the raindrop.
I dropped it.
The crystal twinkled in the cabin lights as it tumbled back to Rook, throwing faint rainbows over her skin. The vibration seemed to increase.
I felt it gnawing into my brain, affecting my pulse, making everything tight and tangled and wrong.
Her eyes suddenly shot open.