Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
I’m someone else now.
And I knew this was coming. I felt like it had already happened. So it’s not even a surprise that I don’t recognize myself in this moment.
Clara’s not either, I guess. Because she’s not complaining about the new me.
Of course she’s not, because while the new me thrusts my hips, slapping them against her ass and jerking her forward, I stroke her from the front, massaging her sweet spot in just the right way.
She likes it, too. She likes the new me. I know this because she’s not even trying to be quiet. She is not even trying to pretend she’s not into this. She is moaning, and gasping, and squealing, and she comes, more than once, while I close my eyes and forget what I just did, and who I did it to, and just use this woman up like a man with no future.
Then, at the last possible moment, I slide out of her, pump myself a few times with my fist, and come all over her bare ass with my eyes still closed.
I don’t know how long it takes for Clara to try to rise. A few minutes, maybe? But by the time she is ready to stand back up and reorganize her gown, I’m well and truly done. So I let her.
She’s still breathing hard as she slips the remnants of her lacy lingerie down her legs, kicking it away from her with a lovely silk slipper, and stands to face me.
Then she sucks in a long breath and slowly lets it out as her eyes finally meet mine once more. “Well.” She practically pants this word out. “That was… unexpected.”
I grin, the darkness inside me satisfied. For now. I close the small space between us by taking a step forward. Then I place a hand on her cheek and kiss her again. This time, while it’s still passionate, it’s not angry. It’s sweet. And so is my whispered response. “I love you too.”
She lets out another breath, dipping her chin down—maybe a little embarrassed by what just happened. But then she squares her shoulders and looks back up, eyes sad again. Because this is a sad night and while the sex was a good distraction, it’s just not enough. “You’re going to save me, right?”
“What?” For a moment, I’m confused. And my eyebrows knit together. But then I realize she’s talking about the god and the tower.
“Finn?” She grabs me by the shoulders, forcing me to focus. Her tone has changed. She’s not sweet or submissive now. My anger is gone, but hers is just getting started. “Please tell me that you will save me. Because it’s very, very fucking clear that all ten of us are going into that tower.”
“Clara—”
“What?” She knows the answer. So really, nothing more needs to be said. “You’re not serious! I’m your future wife, Finn.” Her eyes are wide and filled with fear, but also anger. “You. Will. Save me.”
I don’t mean to laugh. I really don’t. It just comes out. And I’m not laughing at her, or what’s happening. I’m laughing at the idea that I have any say in this.
“This is funny to you?”
“No. It’s not funny at all, Clara. It’s just…” I shrug. “If the god calls you in, you’re going in.”
“That’s your answer?” She stares at me for a moment, narrowing her eyes down into slits. “You bring me up here, knowing full well I want you to save me, then you fuck me like a whore—”
“Please,” I scoff. “You weren’t complaining. You got off three times by my count.”
Clara Birch slaps me right across the face.
Hard.
Hard enough to make my head jerk to the side.
Hard enough to leave a splash of spark sticking to my hot face and a blue trail streaking through the air in the aftermath.
Then she turns on her heel and walks out, leaving her destroyed, silk-lace panties behind at my feet.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
My now tired, overused, overseen—but still gorgeous—blue Choosing dress swishes as Matron Connelly grips my upper arm very tight and tugs me through the empty, quiet corridors of the Maiden Tower.
She grabbed me out of the Little Sister line once the whole lot of us were dismissed from the God’s Tower stage after Haryet disappeared through the doors in a spectacular flash of blue light. All the Maidens light up when they go through, but Haryet’s light never seemed to shine that bright to me.
“Don’t dally, Jasina. Things are happening quickly now and we have very little time.”
I hardly think it’s possible to ‘dally’ when she’s practically dragging me. But I don’t say that, of course. Connelly is not a Matron you mess with, so I don’t even bother with an attitude. I just make my silk-slippered feet move a little faster as we cross a bridge enclosed with floor-to-ceiling glass windows.