Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
He had allowed her to drop her head back and was exploring the skin at her throat with his lips, at the same time he shifted his hands back to where they’d been, one cupping her breast, the other doing the same between her legs, when it came to him.
The unicorns last night.
And now, they were in the same position as the lovers had been on the Eros card he had turned from her deck in the gardens of Catrame Palace.
Both of these direct from that reading.
Fucking hell.
He didn’t know what to make of that.
But his arms did.
Of their own accord, they moved again so he was holding her to him around her middle, as if he was giving her a hug.
An intimate one.
But a hug nonetheless.
Her arms wrapped around his, and the only way she could in their position, Elena hugged him back.
Unadulterated Elena.
If she could find a way to give, or give back, she did it.
They stayed right where they were until they heard Jazz shout, “Since you two are done going at each other, maybe we can pack up and get home?”
Cass sighed, Elena doing the same with him.
“We should get moving,” she whispered.
She was correct.
But when she started to pull away, Cassius held her fast.
Her neck twisted as he lifted his head and caught her eyes.
“I enjoy having sex with you as well, my warrior,” he murmured.
She grinned. “It is lovely to have the words, Cass, and I might not have a great deal of experience, and all of what I have is with you, but I’d gathered that.”
“I enjoy being intimate with you, Elena,” he somewhat repeated.
The humor swept out of her violet eyes and she stared at him.
“There is a lightness and freedom to it that I…” he trailed off.
“Cass—” she whispered.
“Have never experienced,” he finished.
“You don’t have to do this,” she told him gently.
He was not going to say his next still mostly hard inside her.
Not for her.
Not for Liviana.
So he pulled her off his cock and turned her so he could take her in his arms, on their knees, front to front.
“It is not about her, it is about us,” he shared. “And that’s what I want you to know. That being with you has meaning to me. It is not just something that is enjoyable. It is not simply a release. It is not a natural progression of what destiny has thrown in our laps. It is you. It is what you give me. I do not know if I have ever felt light in my life. I know I never felt free. There’s a playfulness to you I do not know what to do with, for I have never felt playful. But I feel it is important as well for you to know you give that to me, and that, too, has meaning.”
“You’ve never had a childhood, so I’m not surprised you don’t understand how to take teasing.”
“Oh no,” he rumbled. “The kind of teasing you did earlier, I invite you to try at your whim. Just know you’ll suffer the consequences.”
“Hmm…I’m wondering if we both have the same definition of the word ‘consequences,’” she…bloody…teased.
Fucking hell, he was going to laugh.
Which was what he did, clutching her to him and shoving his face in her neck to do it.
He felt her hands roaming his back and realized she was not laughing with him when he stopped.
He lifted his head.
Instantly, she curled her hand around his jaw.
“I’m not certain we’ll find a lot of time to be playful in the coming months, Cass, but I’ll do my best.”
He could not stop himself from taking her mouth.
So he didn’t.
“If you two don’t get a bloody move on,” Mac shouted, “the Beast will have devoured Triton while you cavort in your tent.”
Cass broke the kiss.
And when he did, Elena asked, “Did Mac just use the word ‘cavort?’”
Cassius felt his lips twitching as he answered, “Yes.”
Elena burst out laughing.
Holding her close, enjoying the feel, Cass laughed with her.
“All right, someone remind me why the Nadirii have been our enemies for nearly three hundred years,” Mac demanded as they all rode side by side behind the women in front of them.
Not five minutes ago, they’d entered The Enchantments.
Before they did this, on a somewhat gray, blustery day in Wodell, the women stopped them in a perfectly ordinary area of the forest.
Elena, Jasmine and Hera had dismounted.
They’d then walked in a line, though separated about ten feet between them, and they did this humming.
Cass could make out Elena’s lyrical lilt from his place in his saddle.
And he’d been mesmerized by her.
She seemed to be doing naught but striding, and then when they ceased moving, standing, however there was an energy emanating from her that was enthralling.
The hum increased in volume, but it did not take long before all three women arched back, their hair flying, their arms extending behind them, when a stiff wind blew as great rifts formed in the air before them.