Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
I’d thought what beat between us would be forever locked away by the laws that had kept us fractured.
My chest squeezed with the accusation that had been thrown out two nights ago by Emilia in Tearsith. One I’d understood she’d made in her distress. But after I’d seen that suggestion of Valeen’s in the stream, I couldn’t accept the assertion Emilia had made.
Valeen’s words had weaved through me like a thread that healed.
Together. Wholly.
I didn’t understand it, but at least I was sure that Pax was supposed to be right here with me.
This man a dream. The only good dream I’d ever had.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I whispered with the hint of a smile tugging at the edge of my mouth.
It was my turn for my eyes to caress. Tracing the sharp angles of his face. The scars that marred him. The tattoos that rolled up his neck to touch the base of his fierce jaw. His hewn, lean body that pulsated with rugged, rough brutality.
So terrifying, and still my greatest comfort.
“Because you’re the only thing in this world I really want to see, Aria. Because you’re every picture in my mind. The imprint marked on my soul.” His raspy, low voice filled the area between us. Then he sat back with a smirk. “Well, and on my skin, too.”
No doubt, he was making reference to the tattoo I’d finally noticed hidden on his abdomen.
We’d lain low in Indianapolis for the last two days, allowing me to take yesterday to recuperate. Allowing me time to regain my strength and for the blisters that had risen on my palms to subside.
In it had been a small respite of bliss.
Pax and I locked behind closed doors.
It was both frustrating and a relief that no one had come for us during that time. Ambrose remained elusive, but it wasn’t like we had been out and about trying to draw attention to ourselves.
“Get used to it, Princess, because I plan on spending my whole life staring at you.”
Then he reached out and snagged a piece of doughnut I’d torn off and popped it into his mouth.
“Hey,” I tried to admonish, but it was full of a giggle as he reached out to steal another piece and I swatted his hand away. I pulled the plate against my chest and curled my arms around it. “Don’t you know to never come between a woman and her sweets?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, aghast.
My brows drew together. “Says the guy who ate half my doughnut.”
“What can I say, yours looked better than mine.”
“That’s just rude. You need to pick better next time.” I tried to keep up the playful affront, but everything softened when Pax reached into the white bag on the table and produced a second strawberry doughnut.
He set it on my napkin. “Just because you’re my princess, I got you two.”
“You do love me,” I murmured as I ripped it to shreds, then put the largest piece into my mouth.
I groaned at the sweetness that coated my tongue.
Pax suddenly leaned all the way across the table and grabbed both of my hands. He pulled them to the middle and leaned forward to get closer to me.
I did the same, moving in his direction, drawn to the intensity he exuded.
We both leaned so far over it that his mouth was a breath away from mine when he whispered, “If it was ever a question, Aria, I want to make it clear. The way I love you. The way it feels when I look at you.”
His hands tightened around mine.
“It’s like I’m shredding apart because I can’t hold the magnitude of it inside. It’s like there’s not enough room inside me to hold the fullness of it. It is greater than anything I’ve ever known, and goes far beyond this reality and into the next. Far beyond this life and into the next,” he emphasized.
Emotion pulled taut in his expression.
Gravity.
Passion.
Fervor.
“It’s unending. Eternal. And whatever that eternity might look like, the only thing I know for sure is I will meet you there.”
Moisture filled my eyes, and I squeezed back. “I will always meet you there. Wherever you are.”
We stayed like that for the longest time, before Pax suddenly went rigid when the bell dinged above the door and it swept open. I peeked behind me to see a woman step inside.
A police officer.
Pax was far more exposed, and he slowly shifted so his face was better concealed, the backs of his shoulders angled in that direction. Peering around the side of the high booth, I held my breath, waiting to see what she would do.
We’d thought to leave two nights ago after what had happened in the city, but I’d been so drained that I couldn’t move. We’d decided to stay here until I had rested.