Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“I need a shower,” he said shortly. “I have to get this fucking tail out of me and wash this shit off my face.”
“Well…all right.” Andi looked at him uncertainly. “If you’re sure you don’t want to talk about—”
“No!” Thrax barked.
Andi winced at his sharp tone and he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.
“Sorry. I’ve done enough fucking talking. Now I just want to clean up.” Seeing Mistress Stoneheart again after all these years had made him feel dirty—downright fucking filthy.
But Thrax didn’t think there was enough hot water in the whole fucking universe to wash away the stain of what she’d done to him.
21
ANDI
Andi changed into a new outfit that had been left for her while she waited for her partner to get cleaned up. It was a soft blue sleeping gown that was cut low in the front, of course—the Delta Salacions seemed to love showing off their breasts for some reason.
As she pulled it over her head and tried in vain to get it to cover her nipples, Andi thought to herself that it probably counted as one of the “gifts” Queen Pantyitch had used to claim they owed her a gift in return. Too bad about that, since they were leaving tonight and taking her prize “stud” with them.
Andi just hoped they could get to the milking room and free Commander Kier without running into any of the guards. She thought it would be possible if they were careful and there didn’t seem to be any guards in the milking room itself.
She’d seen what looked like a back door at the far end of the milking room. If her sense of direction wasn’t wrong, it should lead right out near the docking area. And since Thrax could fly anything with wings, as he put it, they ought to be home free as soon as they stole one of Queen Pantyitch’s ships.
Thrax…Andi had been avoiding thinking of what he’d told her. God, to think that he’d been captured and tortured and abused when he was just a teen—it made her sick to think about it. Not to mention angry when she thought of Mistress Stoneheart—who was aptly named, in Andi’s opinion.
That evil bitch! How dare she do such a thing to a helpless child?
It made Andi wish she could go back in time and stop the whole thing from happening…or at least comfort the young Thrax and tell him none of it was his fault. She’d wanted to tell her partner that—to let him know that she didn’t think any less of him, but it had been clear he was finished talking. It was also clear that he was ashamed of what had been done to him…and the things he had been forced to do to survive.
Andi wished there was something she could do for him to make him feel better. Some way to ease the ache inside him. Now that she knew about his past trauma, a lot of the way he’d been acting on this mission began to make sense. The strange way he had zoned out when she put the tail in him, for instance…and the way he kept slipping and calling her “Mistress.” Obviously he had been reliving past trauma.
It made Andi feel terrible to realize that—she never would have agreed to put the tail in if she’d known about his past. She just wished that Thrax had felt like he could tell her about it before. Well, maybe he would talk to her more now that it was out in the open.
The two of them had grown a lot closer on this mission, she reflected. They had admitted there was more to their relationship than just friendship and a good partnership and they had gotten more physical—more sexual—than she had ever dreamed they would. Honestly, Andi didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
On one hand, there was no rule on the Mother Ship against dating coworkers. But on the other hand, Thrax was a Hybrid and they usually couldn’t Bond a woman to them. Andi didn’t know how necessary a Soul Bond was—she’d never had one of course. But she knew that the Kindred considered them to be absolutely essential and didn’t feel like any kind of marriage or “Joining” as they called it was complete without one.
Listen to you, she scoffed at herself. Thinking about marriage already when the two of you have barely established that you feel something besides friendship for each other.
But honestly, it was the only option with Kindred. They didn’t do the friends with benefits thing very well—mostly because a lot of them couldn’t make love to a woman without at least trying to Bond her to them. Though a few could—she remembered Thrax saying that he could have sex with a woman—even knot her—and not worry about having to Bond because he would also have to bite her and inject his essence in order to complete the process.