Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“Finish that smoothie, and I’ll show you.”
A wicked smile curved my mouth.
A half-hour later, I held Grace’s hand as we walked across the courtyard toward the Domum. Her sundress swished around her thighs with every step, and my blood ran thick and hot just thinking about what I was going to do with her.
“You promise you’re feeling well?” I asked for the fourteenth time.
“Promise.” She squeezed my hand. “The meds are helping, I think. Barely any pain. No nausea.”
The drugs were masking the symptoms, but they weren’t treating the cause.
Don’t think about it. Not tonight.
“What’s going in there?” she asked as we came closer to the palace and the music reached her ears.
“The nobles are having a party.” I lifted her hand and kissed the back of it.
“Any special occasion?” She tugged her hair over one shoulder, exposing the flawless skin of her neck.
I stared, hunger pulsing through my fangs as her pulse beat, strong and steady in her throat.
“Ajax?”
I blinked. “Right. No. There’s no special occasion. They’re just a bunch of bored vampires hiding out in the Palace because they’re being targeted by the Sons.”
“So they party.”
Reaching for the door, I held it open so she could walk in. “So they party.”
The expansive hallway was full of nobles making their way to the ballroom, dressed in black-tie as usual. None of them dared to look at me or Grace with anything but the utmost respect.
“I’m a little underdressed,” Grace said quietly, hugging my arm as we made our way down the marble hallway to the foyer.
“Not yet, you aren’t.” A corner of my mouth lifted into a smirk.
“What does that mean…” Her mouth dropped as we found the foyer and the ten-foot-tall fountain that sent water cascading in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree curtain around the pillared base. “Wow.”
“Yeah.” I tugged her under my arm, holding her close as a couple walked by, nodding to me respectfully as they continued on toward the ballroom. As soon as they turned their back on us, I leaned down and kissed Grace.
She gasped, and I pressed my advantage, consuming her mouth with long, flicking strokes of my tongue. Her moan went straight to my dick, and the bite of pain at the back of my neck from her fingernails was my complete undoing.
I hauled her against me and kissed her breathless.
Half a dozen couples walked into the foyer and Grace pulled away, ducking her head against my chest.
Oh, it was about to get fun.
Throwing out my hands, I stopped time everywhere around us, including the fountain in our little bubble. “Look at me.”
Grace arched her neck, her eyes meeting mine.
“Fuck me, could you be any sexier?” My thumb grazed her kiss-swollen lower lip. “This mouth.” My hands skimmed the sides of her ribs, pausing to lovingly cup her breasts before trailing down to the curve of her waist. “This body. You were made for me, you know that?”
She bit her lower lip and nodded, then glanced around us. “What are we doing?”
I gripped the backs of her thighs and lifted her so our mouths were level as the scent of her arousal flooded my lungs. “Checking two of the boxes off that list you mentioned. I know it’s not exactly a shower, but it’s definitely public.”
Her eyes widened as I stepped over the edge of the fountain and into the six-inch-deep pool. Water poured into my boots and I couldn’t have cared less, not with how Grace smiled at me. “But if you stopped time, how is the fountain still going?”
“The whole unit is self-contained.” I’d asked Alek weeks ago, immediately fantasizing about what I was about to do right now. Lust and need rose quickly, overruling almost every shred of common sense. “Tell me you’re really feeling okay.”
She locked her ankles behind my waist and leaned in, nipping my earlobe with her teeth. “I feel like I’m going to combust if I can’t have you inside me.”
I growled, my instincts roaring to life, demanding I fulfill every want, every need my mate had, and then I walked us straight through the curtain of water. It slicked our skin, drenched our clothes, and the droplets caught up in our kiss as I pressed her back against the marble pillar. In here, I could’ve restarted time and no one would’ve been the wiser about what I was doing to Grace.
No one would’ve known that the fabric of her sundress protested as I shoved it up her thighs.
No one would’ve known that her hands were frantic as they roamed my body, shoving my shirt up so she could trace the lines of my abs.
No one would’ve known that my cock throbbed, straining at the fly of my pants to get inside her.
But they would’ve heard her breathy little cry when I dragged the neckline of her dress down and took her nipple into my mouth. And hearing my Grace’s moans? That pleasure was mine and mine alone.