Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“What do you need me to clean today?”
“You’re not cleaning.”
“I’m not?”
He didn’t reply.
“Where are we going?” I went despite my questions, rather well trained at this point to fulfil his commands.
He didn’t speak until he’d led me into his bedroom and turned to face me. “It’s time for another lesson.”
My stomach dropped. “What lesson?”
Crossing his arms, he ignored me. “Did you bring the knife I gave you?”
My temples throbbed with sharper pain. “No.”
“Where is it?”
“Back in my—” I cut myself off. “In the pavilion I used to live in.”
“Ah.” He nodded, both of us remembering the corpses and blood.
I braced myself for him to tell me to go collect it. To step over the bodies and bring back a dagger I had no intention of using, but he merely reached into his back waistband and pulled out the very knife he’d used to kill yesterday.
White noise roared in my ears.
Holding it flat on his palm, he offered it to me. “Take it.”
I backed up instead. “I’m good. Thanks.”
He exhaled, slow and frustrated. “I said, take it.”
“Why?”
“Because I told you to.”
“But...” I swallowed hard as my anxiety ramped up. “You’ve already shown me where the best places are to strike someone. That’s enough.”
His hand shook a little, offering up the dagger. “Once is not enough. I doubt you’ve obeyed me and practiced so...you’re practicing. Right now.”
“But—”
He shot forward, grabbed my wrist, and slapped the wooden hilt into my grip. His large, hot hand wrapped around mine, folding my fingers tight around it, not letting go.
His closeness, his harshness—it made the air spark and blood burn.
I shivered, unable to hide my reaction.
“Stop shaking,” he growled, his voice slipping beneath the black dress I’d borrowed from Evelyn’s wardrobe.
Goosebumps shot down my spine because apparently, I was crazy and infected with need I could no longer control.
Trying to get free, I forced a laugh. “I get it. I get it. I know how to hold a knife.”
His jaw clenched as he held me tighter.
I held my breath, needing him to let me go before I did something stupid.
With a soft groan, he moved before I could react.
His other hand landed on my hipbone, pivoting me and yanking me back so my spine slammed to his front. The spin left the world lopsided—his body steadying mine as firmly as a brick wall.
Lydia flashed into my head.
This was how he’d grabbed her yesterday. How he’d held her as he killed her.
“W-Wait—” I strained in his hold as his arm snaked around my middle, jerking me harder against him, ensuring I felt every inch of him. Every powerful, masculine, hard as rock inch.
I went absolutely still.
He...was affected.
Same as me.
I wasn’t alone in this madness.
Wasn’t drowning in a sea of need alone.
His chest moved against my back, his nose dropping to nuzzle my hair, and his hips...they twitched against my lower back, pressing unmistakable arousal against me.
My heart went berserk.
My pulse drenched my sensitive system with nervousness and need and pain.
I needed to run.
To get far, far away from him before I either collapsed or did something that would probably get me killed.
His hand flexed around mine on the knife as his hips rocked again, his arm slipping down my waist to lock at the base of my belly, holding me rigid. His fingers spread over my hipbone, trapping me as if he couldn’t bear the thought of letting me go.
A soft moan escaped me as his nose pushed my loose hair aside, grazing along my neck.
His bicep bunched against the side of my breast as he pulled me even tighter, fusing us together. The closeness knocked the air from my lungs. His breath on my skin, tattered and shallow.
My knees went weak as Whisper suddenly appeared through the door. The panther froze mid-step, his ears flattening as he glowered at both of us plastered into one. Prowling forward, he sniffed us, sneezed at whatever pheromones we were releasing, then stalked to Lucien’s bed and flopped down.
His arrival helped break the spell just enough for me to squeak. “W-What are you doing?”
Lucien’s fingers wrapped tighter over mine, bruising my palm on the dagger’s hilt.
“Teaching you valuable life lessons,” he breathed, rough and guttural.
Lessons in carnal pleasures?
Yes, please.
My mind exploded with images of him slamming me against a wall and spinning me around. Of him pressing his hips against my front instead of my back. Of him hoisting me up so I could wrap my legs around him and rock against that impressive—
“I told you the other day,” he groaned, his voice rough and intimate in my ear. “If you’re going to kill someone...the throat is the easiest and most certain.” His mouth slid across the shell of my ear, sending an electrical shock right down my spine.
Guiding the knife and my hand, he pressed the tip against my larynx.