Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 102(@200wpm)___ 81(@250wpm)___ 68(@300wpm)
She taps out a message on her phone, ignoring me.
"What did you just say, Sunshine?"
"No," she groans, pressing her phone against the window again. When that doesn't work, she holds it up near the roof of the Jeep, and then contorts herself, shoving her arm into the backseat. Finally, she huffs and drops the phone onto her lap. "Stupid mountain with no stupid reception."
"Sunshine, focus," I growl, two seconds from pulling this car over to spank her little ass again. "What did you just say?"
"I said Cleary is Anita Dix," she says slowly, looking at me like I'm crazy. "The romance author."
Shit, maybe I am losing my mind.
Or maybe it's just wishful thinking, asshole. You played with fire last night, now you're burning for it.
"She just confessed that she's been writing this year as Anita Dix. She never told us." A bright smile stretches across her face, those fucking dimples popping out again. "I'm so proud of her, Deacon."
"Good for her," I mutter, not sure what else to say.
"Do you read?"
"I'm guessing not the same things you read."
"Oh, really? So you don't read monster smut?" she sasses, smirking at me.
"I don't even know what the fuck that is, Cordelia."
"Romance between a human and a monster. Sometimes they have interesting things going on with their…um…nether regions. Like knots and things."
"Knots?" My brows fly upward.
"You know, on their penises, so when they, um…" She squirms in her seat, blushing bright red. "It gets stuck inside after they…" She huffs adorably. "It's so they can breed their mate without it leaking out."
"Sunshine?"
"Yeah?"
"Stop talking."
"Okay," she whispers.
I exhale a slow breath, my dick so hard he's about to break in half. Jesus. She's a kinky little thing, isn't she? I'd like to breed her. I won't need a damn knot, either. I'll just leave my cock in her between rounds until she's nice and pregnant.
"You think I talk too much, don't you?"
"I think if you keep talking about breeding, I'm going to be fucking you on the side of this mountain until you're screaming the goddamn thing down around us," I growl, glancing over at her. "Every word you say makes my dick harder, baby."
"Oh." Her gaze falls to my lap, her tongue skating across her bottom lip.
I fire a round of curses up at the roof of the Jeep.
This is going to be the longest goddamn hike in the history of hikes.
Chapter Seven
Cordelia
Cordelia
"Are we there yet?" I pant, grasping onto a tree. My legs feel like rubber. Actually, that's not true. I can't feel my legs. All I feel is the burn in my chest and the knot in the pit of my stomach.
"Almost, Sunshine," Deacon promises, reaching out to run his hand down my back. "Ten more minutes."
"You said that ten minutes ago," I remind him. He said it ten minutes before that, too. I think he's trying to keep me from freaking out by giving me small increments of time to focus on, but the longer we're out here, the more my anxiety grows. It's cold and isolated and feels far too much like it did when I was a teenager. I don't like it at all.
Deacon has been surprisingly patient with me. I expected him to be cranky and annoyed, but he hasn't been. He's been…really sweet. He's talked more in the last two hours than he has since I got here. I'm sure if he were on his own, he and Tyr would already be at the cabins by now, but he doesn't seem to mind that I'm slowing him down. He's let me set the pace and just walks along at my side, helping me over fallen logs and grabbing me when I slip on icy patches or trip…which happens more than I care to admit.
"I mean it this time. Look." He points up the ridge. "We're going right up there."
I follow his finger to a gap between the trees, sighing in relief. It doesn't seem that far, but distance can be deceptive out here. Mountains that are miles and miles away look as if they're close enough to touch. It's precisely why so many people get lost. Nature is a tricky biatch.
"Let's go then," I groan.
"Rest a minute, Cordelia. We've got time."
"You don't need rest."
A glimmer of a smile touches his lips. "Jealous, Sunshine?"
"I hate exercise." My nose scrunches up. "Actually, exercise hates me. Last time I tried to use the treadmill at the gym, it sent me flying across the room like I was a human cannonball. My butt hurt for weeks."
He laughs abruptly, startling a fluffy rabbit in the underbrush. It darts across the trail just ahead, leaping into the frozen brush on the opposite side of the trail. Tyr barks and jogs after it, sniffing the bushes where the little guy disappeared.
"Tyr, leave it. He's too small to eat."