Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
“Yes, Sir,” she murmured again and then dared to glance up at him. The stern look on his face and the way he had his arms crossed over his broad chest made her heart beat even faster for some reason. “How…how long will it take for the stains to wear off?” she asked, holding up her hands.
“They should fade in a day or two,” Sirex informed her. “Let’s hope you do better on your second trial.”
“I’ll try, Sir,” Phoebe said meekly. “I…I lied about the distortion,” she added, suddenly feeling like she needed to be completely honest with him. “I just…lost focus. That’s why I tripped and fell.”
“Hmm.” Sirex nodded thoughtfully. “Thank you for your honesty. And what were you thinking of that made you lose focus?”
“Oh, um…” Phoebe immediately regretted her impulsive honesty. She could feel her cheeks getting hot with a blush that she knew he could see and her heart started racing. “I…I’d rather not say, Sir,” she said at last. “It’s personal.”
“I see.” He nodded again. “Well next time try to keep your mind on the task at hand instead of on ‘personal’ matters. All right?”
“Yes, Sir—I will,” Phoebe promised, hanging her head.
An intrusive thought pushed its way into her mind—if the two of them really were characters in a BDSM romance novel, she would kneel at his feet now to show how sorry she was. And then he might decide to tie her up and whip her as punishment—or maybe just take her over his knee for an old-fashioned spanking. Since he was so much bigger and stronger than her, all she could do would be to endure it and beg his forgiveness as she moaned from the mingled pain and pleasure…
No, stop it. You have GOT to stop thinking like this—I’m begging you, she told her brain as she attempted to banish the forbidden thought. Sirex is my mentor and that’s all!
But still the illicit images persisted and there didn’t seem to be any way to stop them…
4
PHOEBE
Later, Phoebe realized that her first trip through the training tunnel was also the beginning of her falling in love with her mentor. She tried not to—she did her very best to banish all the forbidden thoughts and images that kept popping into her head and she absolutely refused to picture Sirex when she gave in to her erotic urges in the middle of the night. But the minute she thought she had gotten rid of her crush on the big warrior, he would say or do something that brought all the butterflies rushing back again.
Though she loved reading BDSM romance, she had never been in any kind of a D/s relationship before…until now, she thought ruefully. Only Sirex had no idea she was thinking of him as her Dom.
There was just something about the big warrior that called to a part of her that had been buried up until now. Phoebe never had a desire to submit before—though she liked reading about it, she’d never met a man worth submitting to. Because she was as tall as most human guys, the idea of submitting to them seemed silly. And even if they were tall enough, most of them seemed stupid and vacuous. It was hard to find a human guy with anything besides money, sex, and sports on his mind—at least if her experience using the dating apps was anything to go by.
Sirex was different. He didn’t offer personal information often…but he didn’t withhold it either. When Phoebe asked about his childhood, hoping to learn more about him, he told her about growing up on Tranq Prime. He talked about killing his first V’ranna—a huge polar bear like beast with turquoise fur—at the age of twelve and his manhood ceremony afterwards. And then he told her that no one but his immediate family had come to the ceremony because of his half-Scourge blood. The rest of the people in the grotto he had lived in had shunned him because of his appearance and his lineage.
He asked questions about her life and her past relationships too. Some of them made her squirm, but Phoebe did her best to answer truthfully. She told him about being stood up for her Senior Prom and how she had gone with a group of girlfriends instead and had seen her date making out with her step sister.
That was a particularly painful memory, but when Sirex asked, she shared it. She found that she didn’t want to hide things from her mentor. He offered her complete honesty and she wanted to do the same for him.
She became an expert at going through the training tunnel without getting nan’door stains. Even when she started seeing the light illusions—huge, glowing faces or terrifying monsters reaching for her—she just closed her eyes and listened to Sirex’s voice guiding her through. All around her, the other cadets had bright green stains on their hands and faces but after the first day, Phoebe was mostly unmarked.