Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
I cracked a smile. “You couldn’t kill me if you tried, Grace.”
But Samuel would have no problem slaying her.
I blinked. It’s been a couple of days. If Samuel knew about her, she’d be dead by now. If the Sons had seen us, she would have been their target today. If a vampire’s auto-parts dealer was enough to stir them to violence, then surely a vampire’s female—
She’s not your female.
And yet, here I was.
Dagon and Saint would never let me hear the end of it if they saw me like this.
“What are you thinking?” Grace asked, pulling her long hair over one shoulder and exposing her neck. Her pulse beat steadily while mine lurched to a gallop.
“Nothing I should tell you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Tell me something else.”
“What do you want to know?” I smoothed her hair back from her beautiful face.
“Why did you go into…reaping? Bounty hunting. Whatever it is you do?” She leaned into my touch.
“Ah, the psychologist makes her appearance.” She’d have a field day with me if I ever let her inside.
“Not at all, I promise. I’m just curious.”
“I serve my…society.” My hand slid to the side of her neck. “It’s my honor to make the world safer.”
“So loyalty and honor are big to you.”
“The biggest.” Which was why I was going to have to get away from Grace and stay there.
“And what were you thinking just now?” She touched the ridges between my brows. “What made you crinkle?”
“I was thinking you should be safe as long as I stay away from you,” I confessed in a low voice. “I should walk off this porch and disappear out of your life. That’s the safest bet for you.”
She lifted her brows. “And who said I want to be safe?”
“You only have a few months, Grace. The last thing I’m going to do is put you in any danger that could shorten that time, and there are people who would use you to hurt me.” It was the most honest I could be without flat-out saying it.
“Other reapers?” She shifted to face me. “Are there more reapers? I’m curious about how this hallucination works.”
“Hallucination?” I shook my head at her. “You’re still stuck on that?”
“Clearly. You’re far too perfect to be real.” She shrugged.
“And it doesn’t worry you that you think I’m a figment of your imagination?”
“Meh.” A slow smile spread across her face and the spot behind my ribs warmed. “I’ve decided to roll with it. Hallucinations like you are way better than what my mother suffered. And besides—”
Before I could think through what she’d said, she swung her leg over my lap and straddled me. Holy shit.
“I’ve never wanted to kiss anyone the way I want you.” Her hands framed my face.
“Is that so?” Mine bracketed her hips like they’d been pulled there by magnets, like that was exactly where they belonged. “You might not like kissing me.”
Because I might not be able to keep control. I might be no better than that shittily-written vampire in her novel, cutting her soft lips with my exposed fangs, which I was currently fighting to keep sheathed.
“I highly doubt that,” she whispered, her gaze dropping to my mouth. “But even if I don’t, then I’ll know. And I’ve decided if I only have a few months, then I don’t want to miss out on a single thing.”
She kissed me.
Her lips were so fucking soft as she pressed them to mine.
In all my centuries of existence, I’d always been the hunter, the one who made the first move, and yet this delicate, beautifully curved, horribly-fragile human woman was now the one making the move.
And I’d fuck it up if I didn’t get over my surprise.
I lifted a hand to the nape of her neck, tilted her head slightly and kissed her. She moaned, parting her lips, and I sank my tongue into the mouth I’d been dreaming of since I first saw her. The taste of her flooded me, consumed me, raced through my veins and awakened every nerve ending.
Taste. The demand roared through my head as I did just that, exploring every line of her mouth, coaxing her tongue to play with mine. Grace kissed me back with complete abandon, her hands sliding into my hair as she rocked forward on my lap and gasped at what she found there.
Yeah, it had taken nothing more but that first touch of her tongue and I was harder than the metal of the porch swing. I fucking wanted her.
The need for her body wasn’t a suggestion of mine, or even a response of lust. No, it was primal, as though taking her was essential to my existence.
My hand flexed on her hip as I pulled her closer and angled her so she could feel me against her clit every time she rocked, the thin fabric of her pajama pants presenting a barrier in name only. Fuck, she was warm. The heat of her burned through me, incinerating what common sense I had when it came to her.