Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 610(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
“It was for the hand on my thigh,” I replied.
“As if that were true. You never make a sound when it comes to that, not even when I do that thing with my fingers that I know you like, because everyone likes it.”
I knew exactly what she was talking about. “I just . . . I just don’t get why you stay here,” I said finally, tucking my foot between hers as her arm slipped deeper between the panels of gown.
“Do you think I’m not happy?”
“Are you?”
Naomi didn’t answer right away, instead contenting herself with drawing her fingers over my navel and lower. She made no comment when no undergarments met her adventurous fingers, knowing that Maven had dressed me. “I stay because I want to. Because I am happy here.”
It was now I who went quiet.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
I tipped my head into the crook of her shoulder. “I hope you speak the truth.”
“You should.” She looked down at me, brown eyes serious. “Look, I’ve heard you say it before. Archwood is like any other city in any other territory, but it’s pretty here. The air is clean and not clogged with smoke like the towns near the mines. I have a roof over my head and as much food as I can eat, and I don’t have to break my back for that.”
“You sure you aren’t breaking your back?” I quipped.
Naomi’s stare turned droll, and I giggled. “It’s not my back I break,” she said, and another small laugh left me. “Anyway, as I was saying, I don’t have to work myself to death in the mines or cleaning up after others. Nor do I have to marry to feel secure. I choose what I do with my days and with whom. Besides, I like fucking and being fucked,” she told me, hand slipping between my thighs.
“Never would’ve guessed that,” I stated.
Naomi’s laugh tugged at my lips, and my own crawled up my throat. That was the thing about her laughs. They were infectious.
“I’m not like my sister, you know? I never wanted to be married and be used as nothing more than a broodmare,” she said, the corners of her mouth tensing. “That’s why this life with Claude is perfect for me. There are no expectations. No boundaries. I like what I am.” Her gaze briefly met mine. “I wish you could like what you are.”
My breath caught. “I do,” I whispered.
“And I want to believe that.” Naomi kissed my shoulder. A moment passed; then she changed the subject. “I heard a rumor.”
“About?”
“The fires,” she said. “That the Hyhborn were involved in it.” “Oh?” I didn’t tell her what I knew. Not because I didn’t trust her. Obviously, I did. I just . . . I didn’t want her to worry. She already had enough on her mind with Laurelin.
“I wish I had seen the Hyhborn— not the burning of the buildings part,” she amended, and I snorted. “It’s too few and far between that we get to gaze upon their magnificence.”
I knew Naomi was being silly, but his features were too easy to conjure forth— the curve of his jaw, the slant of his teasing mouth, and those stunning eyes.
“Lis?” Naomi whispered, her lips at the curve of my cheek.
I fixed my stare to the stone floor in front of the couch. A flutter started in my chest, joining the one much, much lower as her touch elicited a fine, tight shiver. “Yes?”
“I asked if you wanted me to get you something to drink.” Her fingers danced over my lower stomach, inching their way below my navel.
“I’m— ” My words ended in a gasp. My gaze flew to Naomi’s and narrowed.
“What?” she said innocently. “Did my fingers grow too close to a very sensitive part of you?”
“Possibly.”
Her grin was pure devilish wickedness. “I do hope you partake in the Feasts this year.”
I raised a brow. “I think the only reason you’re looking forward to the Feasts is so you can wrap a Hyhborn around your finger.”
“What else would look better around my finger?” The tips of her fingers made their way down my lower stomach once more, stopping a mere inch, if that, above the junction of my thighs. “Besides you?”
I laughed.
Her eyes glittered. “Did I tell you that Hyhborn are . . . magnificently endowed?”
She was speaking only the truth. “Can we stop saying ‘magnificent’?”
“Never.” Her lips curved in a faint smile as her fingers swept back and forth, almost— almost brushing against the too-sensitive bud of flesh. “We’re being watched, by the way.”
“There’s not a single part of me surprised to hear that,” I muttered, but I looked to see the man who’d been with the Isbills watching, as was a woman across the way. They weren’t the only ones eyeing us. Luckily Grady wasn’t. Especially since Naomi’s hand was on the prowl again. “And you still have a very strange understanding of behaving yourself,” I said.