Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 144676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
“What a shitty hint. I need more than that!”
I rolled my eyes and hurried into the library, slowing as I passed the lounger. Nyfain’s smell permeated the area. I sat down, pulling the blanket up around me. I longed to just grab a book and lie there until he wandered in. Then maybe we could make love in our reading nook before curling up together and talking about books. What a dream come true that would be!
After a deep breath, I folded the blanket and got up. Maybe we’d be able to do it one day, after everything slowed down. Dare to dream.
I found a folded-up piece of parchment on the little table in the corner of the secret book room, right where I’d intended to put my book and letter. My name was written in Nyfain’s beautiful scrawl, and I snatched it up and opened it immediately.
Dear Finley,
I’m sure by now you are well versed in my bad tempers and worse moods. It seems sixteen years of being trapped in a pit, with no fair maiden to spring me out, has made me unpardonably surly. I wasn’t the nicest of men before the curse, and now I am generally considered unbearable. I applaud you for trying to keep up with my hysterics, as I know Hadriel calls them. You are a strong woman, and I value that quality more than I can say.
I do so apologize for my outburst the other night. I handled the news about the tea badly. Please see my note in the beginning about moods and tempers. I understand your point about a pregnancy being unlikely, but I do not wish to take any chances. You are already a target. I shudder to think what it would mean for you to bear my child. The demon king would kill him or her as quickly as he’d kill me. I wouldn’t be able to protect you. Either of you. And if you think I am possessive now, it is nothing compared with how I would act regarding my child.
So please, keep up with the tea and forgive me my alarm. By now you understand your situation. And if it is too late, and you carry my child, please know that it would fill me with such incredible reverence. I would be honored. I would also need to figure out a way to hide you both. I warn you, that might entail breaking the curse, accepting my fate, and making sure you both escape this kingdom to my mother’s village, where I hope they will harbor you. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
Regardless of what comes, you will have a future. I will make sure of it.
Very apologetically yours,
Nyfain
I leaned against the edge of a bookcase and read it again, smiling. Fuck, he was charming in his letters. If only the two sides of him could be united at all times—the charming prince and the brooding, possessive alpha who raged over my wellbeing. I would never be able to say no. I’d just fall onto my back, spread my legs, and say, “Have at me.”
Though, in fairness, I wasn’t all that far from that now…
Taking a deep breath, I folded up his note and slid it into my pocket. I replaced it with the letter I’d written and the notes with the book before roaming the room for a moment, reading titles.
Before I’d been taken to the castle the first time, I wanted to read about hate sex and hardcore fucking. Now, though…
I picked out what looked like a love story. I needed a sweet, happy ending. I needed to believe they were possible.
“Staring is rude, Cathrin,” Hadriel called out as I emerged from the library.
“Your ugliness is eternal, Hadriel,” a middle-aged woman shouted back as she slipped through an open door down the way.
“That didn’t seem to bother you the other night, when you all but begged me to fuck your face— She’s gone. I’m talking to myself.” He lifted his eyebrows as I appeared beside him. “All set?” He glanced down at the book. “Ah. Okay, let’s run up and put that away, check out the garden, and then get you a dance lesson. The master asked me to arrange it the other day. He is thawing a little, and it’s really helping my stomach.”
“Dare I ask how it is helping your stomach?”
“He’s less scary, and when I am less afraid, my bowels aren’t quite so watery.”
“Gross.”
“Yeah. Maybe don’t ask next time. That’s on you. Speaking of, we need to schedule you two a dinner. What kind of food do you like to eat?”
“Hello?” someone called as we neared the stairs.
Hadriel and I stopped, glancing at each other. The voice had sounded young, like a female child.
“Hello?” she called again.
Hadriel frowned and took the stairs to the first floor, stopping at the bottom step with his hand on the banister. I walked out a few more steps, looking toward the front entrance.