Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 469(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“I’m sure a good chunk of Calum’s job is maintaining the existing glass in the castle. He has to keep it from glass disease and—” Lio cut me off with a kiss.
“Merry Christmas, Felix,” he murmured against my mouth. “I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
“Me too,” I breathed. “Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
We made out like teenagers, kissing and touching and humping against each other until we couldn’t stand another minute with fabric between us. As we stripped each other bare, our eyes met and locked on to each other—the intensity in Lio’s deep blue gaze struck me like a jolt to the heart. I’d never before felt at once so exposed and so protected.
“Lio,” I whispered.
“Shh,” he said, reaching for my face and pulling it in for a kiss. “Let me make you feel good, Felix.”
And he did. Over and over again for hours until I fell into an exhausted sleep curled up against his strong body.
I awoke to banging sounds and shouting, deep voices I’d never heard before and the broken static of walkie-talkies. Before I could figure out what was happening, I felt Lio’s body cover mine, his arms wrapping protectively around my head.
“Lio?” I asked, trying to shake myself out of a deep sleep. “Is that the TV?”
“Shh, everything’s fine, Felix. I’ll explain in a minute,” he whispered quickly in my ear. “Please just trust me, okay? I’m sure it’s a false alarm.” I could hear slight fear in his voice, but what I didn’t hear was surprise. Did he know what was happening?
I tried to shift so I could see, but Lio kept me covered.
“Sir, you need to come with us now. It’s a full call.” The voice was low and commanding. “We’ll keep Mr. Wilde safe.”
I blinked up at Lio, whose head was tilted to the side.
“He’s coming with me. He needs to stay with me,” Lio said.
“You know we can’t do that, sir,” the voice responded. “And I don’t have time to argue. We go now.”
I felt Lio’s body being pulled off me, and I cried out. “What’s happening? Lio?”
A man in dark clothing was forcing Lio off the bed and leading him out of my room by the arm. Lio’s bare ass was exposed for everyone to see.
“Lio!” I called. The fear was stark in my voice. “You can’t take him!”
I scrambled off the bed, pulling a sheet around myself and charging after him, but another man stopped me with a hand around my biceps. It was Jon.
“It’s okay, Felix. He’s all right, I promise. You need to come with me.”
“The hell I do,” I snarled, yanking my arm out of his grip and trying to follow Lio. When I got to the door of the guest apartment, I saw someone had thrown a blanket around Lio’s nakedness. He looked back at me, his face full of apology.
“I’m sorry, Fee. I’ll explain everything when I see you again. I’m so sorry.”
And just like that, he was gone.
I turned back to look at Jon, who’d grabbed me around the shoulders to keep me from following Lio.
“You need to come with me, quickly,” he said.
“Why? Let me get my clothes.” My head was spinning, and I didn’t even know what to think. Had Lio just been kidnapped? “What the fuck is happening, Jon?”
Without even allowing me more than the sheet around my waist, he quickly led me out of the apartment and toward the main house. Instead of entering via one of the regular doors, we entered through a space that looked like a cellar door. It took us straight down into a level below ground, and I immediately recognized the stone arches of the basement corridor.
“Where the hell are we going?” I asked, hearing the panic in my own voice.
“To a secure room. There’s a security protocol in place we follow until we get the all clear.”
“I don’t understand.”
Jon sighed and glanced at me. “This is a royal house, yeah? So when there’s a threat to the monarchy, the royal house goes into a lockdown protocol. In this case, that protocol includes you.”
“But what…” I thought about where to begin with the questions. “What about you? Why are you the one bringing me here, and why can’t Lio be with us?”
Jon led me into a room where I saw a woman about my age sitting curled up on a worn plaid sofa. She was slender with pale skin and delicate features. Thick waves of messy dark hair tumbled down over her shoulders, and she held an e-reader in her lap.
A space heater was trying and failing to warm up the space, and I noticed a table with a coffee maker in one corner. Everything was slightly blurred without my glasses.
I shivered in the thin sheet wrapped around me.
The woman looked up at the commotion of our entry, and her eyes flew wide at the sight of me. The same dark blue eyes as the man I’d been curled up with only moments before.