Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Despite this, my job every morning was to haul up the ladders and clean the rungs. We were told that when we did welcome people, they couldn’t dirty their feet—it would be unholy—so each rung had to be wiped clean before the day began.
The problem was that the rock was also home to a nesting colony of wallcreepers that used the ladders as a perch as they pecked at insects on the rock. Where they perched, they would shit. As soon as I cleaned the ladder, I would lower it, and the birds would fly back to use it as their own little latrine.
Again and again.
One could see how this was a lesson in patience and anger management. In time, the seemingly pointless and bothersome work taught me how to store my rage away. I became even-keeled, methodical in my thoughts, and learned how to put distance between me and my emotions, to be an observer and not a participant.
I no longer let anger rule me.
I no longer let desire rule me.
Until tonight.
Until Larimar batted her damn lashes and stared up at me with those seductive lilac eyes, asking for me to treat her kindly, if I knew what loneliness was, as if I hadn’t spent most of my life in its clutches.
So fucking lonely.
Then, she told me to kiss her until she couldn’t speak, and all I wanted to do was exactly that. To stop her from saying those words that were starting to sink into my heart like bile. To feel her lips and her tongue and taste her so deeply that she’d become part of my veins.
But desire didn’t win out—not at first.
Instead, it was anger, a fanged, hairy shadow that shot out of me as I grabbed her throat.
I hold it now, my fingers squeezing her soft skin tightly, and I’m watching the light start to leave her beautiful eyes. In this moment, I know I’m willing to kill her to not feel anything for her.
This terrifies me.
She terrifies me.
I let her go.
She gasps, her hands going to her throat to soothe the bruises I left behind.
I think to those early mornings on the mountain.
I think of birdsong until the anger dissipates.
Anger quickly replaced with desire.
And for desire, there is no cure.
I want her.
I need her.
I reach out again and grab her face, holding it roughly in one hand while my other hand goes to her hair, making a tight fist. I want to see if her tongue tastes like sugared, salted lemons.
She lets out a cry, her mouth falling open, petulant and pink and wet.
Blood thrums in my groin as lust takes hold.
And I lean into it. Lean into her.
I kiss her.
I kiss her hard.
This is punishment.
For her for being a little brat.
For me for not kissing her earlier.
Christ, I want to kiss her until we both choke on it.
When was the last time I felt a woman’s lips? I can’t remember, but my body knows exactly what it wants. It wants her tongue fucking my mouth, slick and soft. It wants her greedy little moans.
She gives me both, offering them up on a silver platter.
I grunt into her mouth, her tongue teasing, licking me as I’m licking her. It slides beside mine—slick and smooth, tasting of the sea and herbs—and the heat in my trousers grows until it becomes unbearable, a fire that will consume the both of us if I let it go on too long.
Let us burn.
My mouth opens wider, wanting to devour her whole, and she matches me, gasping in a way that has a lightning storm forming in my chest. I twist my fingers into her silky hair, bite her lips, fuck her tongue like a starving man.
She pulls back, just enough to catch her breath, and my fist in her hair grows tighter, as if it will help me stay in control.
But I’m losing hold.
“Take me,” she whispers, her voice raw, roughed up with need.
I try to swallow and can’t.
It’s too much. There’s something clawing up my chest, into my throat.
The monster thrives on this.
I want to give the monster everything.
I want him to feed.
“Forget your vows,” she rasps, leaning in to take my bottom lip between her teeth. She tugs on it hard, my eyes rolling back in my head. “Forget your vows and take me. Please.”
This beautiful creature of mine.
Begging for me.
Bound to me.
Therefore, I must keep her.
I must keep her alive.
Anger is a firestorm in my chest, but it all seems to go to my cock, and I let out a frustrated roar.
I shove her back to the floor and reach down for her. My shaking hands almost go for the bottom of her shift, but there’s a moment of divine intervention, and I grab the fabric of her neckline instead.
I growl as I rip her shift open down the middle, exposing those full tits of hers. I’d been staring at them for weeks now, and suddenly, after being covered up for a day, it’s like I’m seeing them with new eyes, seeing something I shouldn’t.