Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
“I thought you only wanted me to bear your heir,” I said faintly.
“Of course I want you to—I’d love for you to be the mother of my children,” he said. “But the main thing I wanted when we made our deal was just to have you like this—to hold you in my arms.” And his arm around me tightened, pulling me closer, as though to prove his point.
“You tricked me,” I accused. “I bet you were just waiting to see if my brother messed up so you could use the tribute money as an excuse to get me!”
“Hell yes I did—I won’t deny it,” Slade growled. He tilted my chin up and looked more deeply into my eyes. “I’d crawl over broken glass and go through all the fires of all the Hells to have you, Aurora. And I’d kill anyone who tried to stop me. You are the only woman I want—the only woman I’ll ever want. And I have no shame about anything I did to get you and make you mine.”
Then he took my mouth in a kiss that left me breathless and panting and overwhelmed by the intensity of his emotion for me.
That was the main reason I didn’t take the baby-stopper pill. Because Slade loved me and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it. To be honest, I thought I might be falling in love with him, too. I even considered throwing away the green baby-stopper pills completely. But I knew how hard they were to come by on L’Crist. So I decided to keep them and give them back to Pansy when I went home for a visit.
I tucked the little tray back into the lining of my luggage and went to pack some of the dresses Slade had bought me. I hoped, like he did, that this stay at his father’s house wouldn’t be long. I liked being alone with him in the penthouse and I couldn’t imagine we would have as much privacy in his father’s mansion.
I had no idea how right I was…or what a mess was about to unfold.
40
SLADE
My whole family was waiting to greet us when we got to the mansion the next day. My Sire was standing in the foyer with his arm around Lyrah, who was giving us a big, fake smile that didn’t reach her poison-green eyes. My half-brother, Hrake was standing behind his mother, still as shy as ever. My little sister, Jessina, was standing on the other side of my Sire, as far from our stepmother as she could get. I didn’t blame her a bit.
Lyra pounced on us before we could even get through the front door.
“Well, hello, you two!” she exclaimed, coming forward with her arms out.
“Er, hello.” Aurora submitted to being hugged but when Lyrah put out her arms to me and cooed, “Slade, sweetie!” I just glared at her.
“Hello, Lyrah,” I said shortly, not making any move to accept her hug. I wanted nothing to do with her.
She made a face and dropped her arms.
“Anyway, we have the best suite in the East wing all made up for you. In fact, I’ll have the servants take your bags there now.” She clapped her hands and two burly males and one maid, all dressed in gaudy green and gold uniforms, came to take the luggage.
I would have held onto mine if I’d brought anything sensitive. Knowing Lyrah she would have someone look through it to see if she could dig any dirt on me to present to my Sire. But I was wise to my stepmother’s ways. Any sensitive documents I had access to had already been sent to Rive, my Second in Command, to store in a secure location. So I just nodded as the servants carted away our luggage.
“Hey, big brother.” My little sister, Jessina, took the opportunity to give me a hug.
Jessina doesn’t look like the rest of the family—she takes after our mom, who was half Yerbishian. So instead of having a grey skin tone like the rest of us, her skin is a smooth, even brown. She has the same black hair as the rest of the family though and she has wide golden eyes that can tell you every emotion she’s feeling the moment she’s feeling it.
My sister is only about five years my junior but she was still living at home, unmarried. Why, I didn’t know. But I suspected it had something to do with Lyrah—she wanted to have a say in who Jessina got Bound to but my headstrong sister wanted nothing to do with any of her choices. Not that I blamed her—Lyrah has horrible taste in people—it’s even fucking worse than her taste in decorations and that’s saying something.
“Hey, Jessina.” I hugged my little sister and nodded at Aurora. “Aurora, this is my sister, Jessina. And Jessina, this is my Fated Mate and wife, Aurora.”