Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
When he reached Yichen’s room, he didn’t even bother to raise his hand to knock. Nope. He opened the door and slipped inside the semidark room. Ever since his time in the fae realm, Yichen couldn’t stand to sleep in a pitch-black room. There always needed to be a sliver of light. In this case, it was coming from the attached bathroom. The overhead light was on, but the door was almost completely closed, allowing the tiniest thread of light to seep in through the seams of the doorway.
Rei didn’t get more than a couple of steps. Yichen shifted, and the bedside lamp clicked on, filling the room with a warm, yellow glow.
Whatever. It was better he didn’t wake Yichen by sliding into his bed. He would have ended up with a knife buried in his gut.
“Rei?”
Biting his lower lip to hold in his grin, he leaped across the last few meters and landed on the bed. He wrapped himself around the vampire, tangling up the sheet between them.
“Are you okay?” Yichen demanded as he struggled to sit up. “Are you hurt anywhere? Do we need—”
His words halted when Rei brushed his thumb across Yichen’s lower lip. “I’m fine. You gave me a garden to rest and recuperate in, and that’s exactly what I would have done. I feel refreshed. No pains or aches to worry about.”
Yichen sighed, his entire body sagging into his mattress while his head landed on his pillow. “That’s good,” he murmured. “I’ve never seen you drain yourself like that. No more magic for at least a few days. You need to take it easy. Be careful. No one here knows any fae magic that will help you if you’re hurt.”
Rei’s heart swelled with each word of concern Yichen spoke. There had been plenty of times Yiyi had chastised him over the years about being too reckless or taking dangerous risks without thinking things through.
But this time, his words had a different feel to them. A different taste. Or maybe it was the memory of the kiss coloring those words. Or the feel of Yichen’s hand clutching his forearm as if he were afraid Rei was about to fly out of his room on some new disastrous adventure.
Not a chance. There was nowhere else he wanted to be.
“You kissed me,” Rei whispered, and Yichen’s entire body stiffened.
A smirk tugged at Rei’s lips as the vampire shifted, his gaze darting away from Rei’s face. “We need to talk about that, but it’s late. I need sleep. Let’s talk later.”
“Do you regret it?”
That at least got Yichen’s eyes to snap to his face again. “What? No! I just—”
Rei seized his lips in a soft kiss that stopped his excuses and moved them into the realm of action. He’d waited decades for this moment, and he wasn’t about to let it slip through his fingers. Yichen froze for a heartbeat and then surprised him by wrapping his arms around his body and rolling onto his side so they could press even closer together.
A moan slipped from Rei as he lost himself in the kiss. Tender flesh brushing and tugging with each kiss. Yichen’s cool, silken hair slipping to caress Rei’s cheek while fingers dug into his back, pulling him in so tight. By the gods, this man could kiss. He would never have guessed it with all of his scowls. His Yiyi was melting him so that he was nothing more than a puddle of need in his arms.
Yichen broke off the kiss and rubbed the tip of his nose along the side of Rei’s. “You need to stop,” he mumbled.
“I don’t know. We’re really good at this,” Rei teased, trying to angle his mouth to capture Yichen’s for another kiss.
“You need to stop scaring me,” Yichen elaborated as he continued to dodge. “It’s like you’re determined to give me a heart attack.”
Smiling, Rei lifted a hand to run his fingers through Yichen’s loose hair, pushing it from his face. “I don’t think vampires can have heart attacks.”
“And yet you keep trying.” At least Yichen punctuated that grumble with another small kiss. Each one was making Rei more and more malleable.
“Okay, no more scaring,” he promised when Yichen drew his mouth away and Rei gave chase. “I promise to be a good little elf. No more standing on the roof of the car while it’s moving. No more getting body parts chopped off. No more—”
This time it was Yichen who silenced his words with a hard kiss. The tip of Yichen’s tongue slid along the seam of his lips and Rei parted them with a groan of pleasure. Yes, anything Yiyi wanted, he was going to get. The man was an evil fucking genius and right now, every kiss was stamping his ownership of Rei deeper and deeper.
But the kiss was too short. Yichen had barely let his tongue slip into his mouth before he was pulling away.