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)
“Don’t even think about it.” Lucien didn’t bother opening his eyes. The damn man had a sixth sense when it came to the panther and his mischief-making. “There’s not enough room for both of you.”
“Aww, I don’t mind.” Inching to the side, I patted where my legs used to be. “There you go, tiny tabby.”
Whisper smirked and leapt up, flopping down beside me. He was almost as hot as his master. I smooshed his giant face, pressing a kiss on his perfectly healed nose. “You’re adorable and I love you.”
Lucien growled under his breath. “You know...I got irrationally furious at him for falling in love with you in Cinderkeep.”
I froze mid-scratch. “You did?”
His gaze met mine, inky hair falling seductively over his forehead. “That damn cat abandoned me the moment he set eyes on you. He left me to suffer alone while he slept in your bed.”
I chuckled and tugged on Whisper’s ear. “What a little traitor.”
Lucien huffed. “Either that or you’re just lethal. To both of us.”
The air shimmered with heat as his voice lowered. “It wasn’t just him who fell for you, though. Seems I hit the ground so hard, I’m still recovering.” He took another drink. “From the first moment I met you...I knew you were trouble.”
My heart wobbled. My soul flew. And I didn’t know if I was drunk on wine or him. A few stray snowflakes danced in his heat, cancelling us both out.
“You ran in the wrong direction.” He stared into his glass as if his thoughts were back in Cinderkeep. “Everyone else clung together like frightened sheep, yet you bolted alone. I remember thinking you were either an idiot, up to something, or just plain suicidal.”
“So...” I giggled, warm and fuzzy inside. “What you’re really trying to say is...you fell in love with me at first sight?”
“I felt something, that’s for sure.” He flashed me a savage smile. “It was probably just indigestion.”
I matched his grin. “Probably.”
Looking at the happy panther pressed against my legs, he ran his finger over the lip of his cup. “When Whisper dragged me to heal you that first time, I genuinely considered killing you.”
I choked on a mouthful of plum sweetness—or was it apple.
He chuckled and took another sip. “I wanted to kill you, not because you were like them, but because you were different. You were annoyingly not like the rest, and I didn’t know what to do with that.”
“I recall you said you kept me alive because I was, what was the word you used...‘infuriating?’”
“You were. You are.”
“Meh.” I tugged Whisper’s velvety ear. “It worked though, didn’t it? I’m still alive and now you adore me.”
He ignored my quip, staying firmly in the past—almost as if he needed to tell me how he felt back then. “The day you started cleaning for me, I didn’t want to leave the room while you were there.”
“That’s because you probably thought I’d steal something.”
He scowled.
“I’m sorry,” I snickered. “Please...go ahead. Tell me all the reasons why you never let me out of your sight when I was in your quarters.”
“Easy.” He shrugged. “Because everything about you affected me. It wasn’t even the fact you could ease my pain. It was like...my entire soul just calmed down. Like it’d been searching for you all this time.” He pressed the heel of his palm against the warped piece of metal over his heart. “When those girls hurt you, I wanted to rip out their eyes and feed them to them. Whenever you were sad or afraid, it felt as though something was clawing its way out of my chest.”
Good God, what was he doing to me? “Pretty sure those are just called feelings.”
“They were a pain in my ass, that’s what they were.” Turning to face me, he murmured, “Every day, it got worse. I started admiring you when I learned how hard life was for you. I started trusting you each time you drew my blood. You were sneaky in your thievery, Rook, but somehow, I woke up one day and realised I didn’t want to spend a single day without you, which leads me to a problem because...seeing you so injured tonight? Feeling how close you were to death?”
His tone turned dark as the air sizzled around his shoulders. “It was the first time in my life that I understood what true fear is. And if you ever get hurt again. If you ever put yourself in a situation where things can go wrong...I’ll kill you myself.”
A shocked little laugh escaped. I waited for him to chuckle and release the tension, but he just glowered as if I was about to go out and get hurt, just because he told me not to.
“You know that threat doesn’t work anymore, right?” I ducked my head, all while daring to smile. “It didn’t work when we first met and you actually had a genuine reason to kill me. But now—”