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)
“Now I’m even more determined to murder you if you ever get hurt again.” His eyes flashed with that scarlet ring. “If something were to happen to you...what would I do? What the fuck would I do if you died?”
He slowly sat up, wobbling a little, revealing he’d had too much to drink. “Also...I never hated you. I know I didn’t treat you well in those first few weeks but...I never hated you.” He reached forward and ran his thumb over my cheekbone. “I hated how fast you ruined me. I hated how much I wanted you. I hated how you made me want to break my every rule. But I never hated you, Rook. I merely hated the fact that from the very first moment I saw you...I already belonged to you.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
DRINKING WAS A MISTAKE.
Not because I was drunk but because I was struggling to stay in control.
I was too warm, too...sensitive.
As the sun continued to transform the dark night into a golden dawn, my awareness grew sharper, hotter, sensing things I shouldn’t be able to feel. It felt as if the sun reached inside me, connecting me to every living thing.
Not just Rook or Whisper but the fucking flowers and trees. The scratchy, stinging sensation kept getting worse.
I had to be losing my mind because I swore I could hear life itself. I could hear the bonsai that framed the terrace. Heard them growing—a million microscopic pulses all scritching and stretching—each stunted branch reaching for the sun as electrical sparks raced through their roots like tiny, frantic heartbeats.
A blast of fire quickened my heart.
Rook shifted and planted her feet down, making sure the black shirt she’d borrowed covered her. It only came to mid-thigh. It’d been the perfect nightgown while we’d had a nightcap on the terrace. But now it was just torturous.
My need for her was out of control.
It took all my strength not to touch her, take her.
“You feel it too, right?” I snapped, burning up.
She scowled, her skin glittering with frost like it had been all evening, driving me utterly insane. “Feel what?”
“The connection.” I made a vague motion between us. “The pull. Like there’s a string tied from my heart to yours, letting me feel everything you do.”
She shivered but then nodded shyly. “I’ve felt it for a while, but it became unavoidable when you were burning in the caves. It guided me straight to you.”
“I can smell you,” I confessed. “Not the soap you used in the shower but you.”
“Me too.” Her eyes glimmered with that perfect silver ring.
“What exactly is it?” I begged her to have the answer, but she just shrugged.
The sun suddenly breached the top of the peaks, flooding us in bright bronzy light. A rush of heat shot through me as if it made me some sort of conductor, feeding off its energy.
Devouring her energy.
Buckling toward her, my hand wrapped around her nape, jerking her into me.
She almost fell off the lounger as I dragged her close and kissed her. Not gentle or careful but demanding and deep.
Fire surged the second our lips met.
Her skin flashed ice cold beneath my grip.
She melted into me, pressing her hands against my chest for balance.
I plunged my tongue past her lips and she met me, lick for lick.
We lost ourselves as we kissed hard and drunk and messy.
The longer we gave in to the exquisite urge, the more the power in me strengthened.
The terrace became far too loud as growing things buzzed in my ears. The inferno around my heart threatened to get loose.
I deepened the kiss, sliding my fingers through her hair.
Pulling her off her lounger, I braced my thighs for her to straddle me. Wrapping one arm around her, I pulled her down and groaned as she rubbed against the part of me that was desperate for her.
The world narrowed to her mouth. Her heartbeat. Her snow settling over the crackling flames in my blood.
Whisper grumbled as if trying to get my attention, but I couldn’t tear myself away.
The air grew thicker.
Warmer.
I needed her.
I needed to—
“XIAO LU!”
Tearing myself away, I blinked into the blinding sun.
Rook leapt from my lap, wobbling a little from alcohol or lust or both.
Whisper growled as a man flung up his hands and staggered toward us. His eyes went straight to the neat row of potted bonsai trees, complete with ribbons snapping in the mountain breeze.
The bonsai that were now on fire.
“My babies!” Uncle Wen raced to the scene of my crime in navy trousers and a dark green shirt, his silvering hair slicked back and horror etching his weathered face. His mouth dropped open as his ornamental trees smouldered like sacrificial offerings.
Rook glanced at me, wincing.
Her lips were slightly swollen and with the state she’d left me in, I most definitely wasn’t fit for company. Doing my best to adjust myself, I arched my chin at the tiny trees.