Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Wordless, she takes a bite out of the food and begins to chew.
I pull her boots off and then rub her feet, soothing the delicate muscle and bone. I can tell she's exhausted. Every muscle in her body seems limp with fatigue, and it makes my heart ache. I hope these people appreciate what my mate does for them. "Do you want a bath?" I ask. "I can get some warm water and wash you with a towel. You won't have to do anything. You can just relax and let me handle everything."
She's silent as I rub her feet, eating her food. When she's done, I pick up the glass of water from the tray and hand it to her, then go back to massaging her calves. She doesn't say if she wants to bathe, so I remain where I am, running my hands up and down her legs and feet, working the muscles and trying to make her feel better. Foolishly, part of me thinks that if I can get her to realize she needs me, even for this small thing, she'll stay. That I won't lose her. That things between us are not so broken that they cannot be fixed—
"Azar," Melina says softly again.
"Don't say it," I growl, my heart hurting. This world is unfair. I cannot be given Melina only to lose her. "Don't make me leave your side."
"I'm still mad at you," she continues, ignoring everything I've said. Her toes wiggle in my grasp. "But I'm not as mad."
I look up at her, my heart skipping a beat. "You don't hate me?"
Melina shakes her head. "I probably should, but I don't."
I stroke my hand up the delicate arch of her foot. "I can tolerate everyone else in this world hating me…just not you. If I don't have you, Melina, I am going to lose my mind." By all the fires, I sound as vulnerable and needy as one of those drakoni fools. To think that I am reduced to this. And yet, Melina's foot is in my grasp, my hand on her soft skin, and she says she does not hate me. It does not feel wrong to simper at her feet. She is mine, after all. If I cannot be vulnerable with her, I will be utterly alone.
And Melina seems to need vulnerability from me. So I must continue, even though it goes against everything I have ever learned.
"I know I am not a good man," I say as I lift her foot toward me and kiss the arch.
"That's just it, Azar. You're not a man. You're a Salorian. And I keep forgetting that. You don't think like the rest of us." She tilts her head, regarding me as I press kisses to her skin, making my way up the front of her foot to her leg. She points her toes and lifts her leg onto my shoulder, encouraging my affection.
A ravenous yearning fills me. "Melina—"
"I know," she says softly. "I know what you're going to say. That you're trying. And I know you are. I saw that you were feeding people near the clinic. I saw the flyers. I think that's such a good idea to build their trust. But baby, you can't offer the world with one hand and slap them down with the other. You won't win anyone like that."
I continue to kiss fervently up her leg. "I know. I know, my heart. That's why I need you. I need you to tell me when I step wrong. I need you at my side to guide me."
Her foot lifts from my grasp and in the next moment, she plants it on my face. "Then you have to listen when I talk, damn it. If I tell you to calm down, you have to calm the fuck down, understand?"
Is she trying to intimidate me? Her anger just fuels my lust for her. No one else would dare talk to me like this. Even though I am a lesser Salorian general, I am still a general. My presence strikes fear into the hearts of all drakoni, and to raise a voice to me is to court death.
Maybe that's why Melina has my heart so fully. She is so very…human. She has never been afraid of me. She tells me when I am wrong with strong words, and she has very clear concepts of what is okay to her and what is not. My worry that she is abandoning me is changing to pure, unadulterated lust. "You are saying I do not listen?" I pull her foot from my cheek and nip at her ankle. "That I do not pay attention?"
She huffs a laugh, shivering. I can see her nipples beading underneath the shirt she wears. "You only pay attention to my pussy."
"Perhaps that is the only thing worth paying attention to," I reply, my voice heated with need. I nip at her ankle again, and when her toes curl, I mouth the soft skin closest to me, moving up her calf once more.