Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Where I’d been curled up and terrified, muttering my wards, with occasional breaks to cry out for Nathaniel’s help, not sure if there was any hope of him showing up before the vampires decided the pain would be worth grabbing me and doing… whatever they planned to me.
Then, like some dark, avenging angel, the door burst open, the wood cracking. That sound mingled with a deep, menacing growl, and the crashing of glass from somewhere else in the suite.
I watched as the three younger vampires attacked the much older Nathaniel.
And he… struggled.
I honestly didn’t know enough about vampires to know how things worked when it came to odds in a fight. But it felt like Nathaniel should have been able to handle the three much younger, slower, and weaker vampires.
My survival instinct had me crawling toward the window, sending a warning to Nathaniel to get cover, then pulling the curtains open before the other three even had a chance to guess what I was up to.
It was horrific, but fast, the way they caught flame, then burst into ash.
Then the curtain was closed, and Nathaniel’s arms were around me.
As he cradled me to his chest with a delicacy someone like him shouldn’t have been capable of, I had the strangest thought.
That there was nowhere else in the world I would rather be.
That was insane, of course. Because I always wanted my couch or bed, blankets, pillows, and snacks.
Still, though, the feeling lingered.
Then intensified as I lay in the tub, the water both comforting and enticing as it slid over my skin the way I suddenly wished Nathaniel’s fingers would.
It was harmless, I told myself, letting my eyes drift closed, sinking into the fantasy, letting it take root and spread.
It wasn’t long before the need was an ache in my core that refused to be ignored.
So what if I let my hand drift down, to tease, to ease the ache?
I thought nothing of it as the pleasure spread, expanded, overtook me completely.
But as I came back down from the climax, I remembered something that had the lingering fogginess of an orgasm pulling back instantly.
This was not a normal man in the other room; It was a vampire.
A vampire who had bat-like hearing.
There was no way he hadn’t heard what just happened in here.
And realized exactly what I might have been thinking about during.
Who I might have been thinking about during.
Great.
That was just great.
I had to live in the tub now.
I wondered if delivery guys would come right into the bathroom to bring food.
If not, I guess I could just starve to death. That would definitely be preferable to the humiliation I would feel by facing Nathaniel again.
The water cooled, and I drained and refilled it as I tried to rationalize things.
I mean, this guy had been alive-ish for three centuries. Surely, he was wholly over the puritanical ideas of his initial time period.
Besides, he admitted he was a frequent client of sex workers.
Since his re-life, he probably had bedded hundreds or thousands of women. Engaged in many sessions of self-satisfaction.
Knowing that, though, I still emptied and refilled the tub another time and let it cool before finally climbing out and drying off.
I moved in front of the mirror, checking the darkening bruises from the other vampires, having a hard time reconciling the difference between the natures of them compared to Nathaniel.
You couldn’t find more opposite creatures. In fact, the only time Nathaniel had shown that vicious, monstrous side of him had been when he’d been defending me from them.
Sure, I guess you could make an argument for me being valuable to him thanks to our arrangement.
But, still, there were other witches. I was replaceable.
Maybe he was just… I don’t know… softened from living longer.
There was a light knock at the door, making me jolt.
“The sun is down,” Nathaniel called from the other side of the door.
Alone, I climbed back into my clothes, then tied my hair up.
“I had pizza delivered,” he called when I said nothing and, despite being fully dressed, didn’t move out of the safety of the bathroom.
My stomach let out a grumble, and I realized he already knew my biggest weakness.
Taking a deep breath, I reached for the knob and pulled the door open.
“I would prefer if you ate in the car, though,” he said as I moved out into the room, trying not to look like I was avoiding looking at him by focusing my gaze on parts of his face. His cheek. His nose. His chin. Anywhere but his eyes.
“That’s fine,” I agreed, moving back toward the beds to gather my things, only to remember that I didn’t have my bag or phone with me.
Nathaniel had already packed up my old clothes and the snacks. The bag hung from one arm as the other held a small pizza box.