Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
I pull back. I’m a pacifist. “How can you say that? They were people.”
He blinks, returning to the present moment with me.
“Is that how you see me? Just as a pawn in some game?”
He shakes his head. “No, Lo-Ren. That is my past.”
“One you obviously miss.”
His eyebrows narrow. “It was what I was made for. My father crafted sons that he might know power on this plane of existence.”
“And the only way he could get power was by killing people?”
“War is how men gain power,” he says, looking at me like I’m foolish or naïve not to understand that.
I throw my hands up. “That’s such a—a—a destructive, male thing to say! What did your father need all that power for anyway?” I ask, disgusted. “Just so he could fight another war and kill a bunch more people? What did it ever get him?”
Remus laughs as if I just don’t get it. “What do you mean, what did it get him? He won influence. He whispered in the ears of the most powerful men on earth. They won wealth, riches, and kingdoms and created empires! The world you now know is because of what my father, brothers, and I did. We created civilizations.”
I cough out a disbelieving laugh. “You mean you destroyed civilizations. You’re only talking about war, not peace.”
Remus waves a hand away. “Peace was what happened until the next war when another great leader rose up.”
“Are you serious? What about the great leaders who were able to maintain peace? Don’t you get that that’s what actually makes a leader great?”
“Expanding a territory is what makes a leader great. Conquering so that you have created an empire from the stretch of one sea to another is what makes a leader great.”
“If war is so great, why aren’t you still out there leading battles and whispering in the ears of generals?” I ask, fists on my hips. I can’t believe I ever went along with such a, a barbarian.
He waves a hand again, reaching for a bottle of whisky and uncorking the top. He drinks straight from the bottle like I did from the wine earlier. “I decided to retire. Even the most celebrated generals deserve to rest at the end of their great service.”
“Who did you ever serve?” I spit out.
He looks straight at me. “Myself.” But then his eyes drop as he takes another long swig. “And my father, I suppose.” I remember the stealthy figure stealing fire from the angels.
“And where is he? Off with your brothers? War criminals on vacation?”
Remus slams the bottle of whiskey down on the counter. “My father’s gone. Damned to Gehenna if there’s any justice in the place we sent him back to.”
“Really? Is that what you want? Justice for all the lives you’ve taken?”
In one sudden swoop of wings, Remus flies across the kitchen so he’s standing in front of me, crowding my space. He slams a hand against the wall above my head, and I gasp as he looks down at me.
“You’ve found out my secret, little consort. I’m not a good man. In fact, I’m a very, very bad one. I don’t care about morality or right and wrong.”
He bends his head down over me, eyes piercing mine. As much as I want to squeeze my eyes shut against the magnetism of his pull, I don’t. God help me; I stare right back even as my body begins to tremble from his nearness.
“But maybe you don’t want a good man,” he whispers, voice low. “Good men are boring. And I’m beginning to suspect that underneath that sweet, good-girl exterior is a woman who wants more than the safe and boring things a normal life has to give her.”
He leans down even more so his thick lips brush my temple at my hairline. “Life with me won’t be safe. Or expected. I want to do things to your body that will have you shuddering and gasping my name. I want you trembling and aching and begging me for more even though you’re already spent.”
A quiver wracks through my body at his filthy words and the images they’re conjuring in my mind.
He leans down more, slightly to the side now so that his whisper is right against my earlobe. “I want to grab the luscious flesh of your ass in both of my hands and drag you up and down my cock until you forget your own name because you’ve been crying out mine for so many hours straight.”
I gasp, and it comes out something like a squeak.
Hot air and the brush of his lips against my ear have me quivering and drenching my panties, my eyelids fluttering as he continues to speak low. “Then and only then will I permit you to give in to your pleasure, clenching and bursting apart while acknowledging me as your one true god.”