Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Carpathians hunted vampires. That much information she’d gotten from Luiz. They could read minds. They could take blood and prevent a human—or jaguar shifter—from knowing. Thoughtfully, she stroked the pads of her fingers over her pulse point. Why was it burning right in that particular spot? Why did it soothe her when she touched it? Why had her nightmare included Tomas taking her blood?
She hit the surface with the flat of her hand and sent the water flashing high across the tub to splash against the wall. “He took my blood after I specifically told him no. Just like Luiz did. One thing we’ve learned about Carpathian males is they refuse to give their women choices.” She hissed her conclusion aloud, certain she was right. Tomas had taken her blood despite her clear refusal. “Not a good start to this lifemate business.”
Where was he? The need to reach out to him hit her again, this time even stronger than before. Sorrow welled up. Inexplicable grief. She kept taking deep breaths to stay calm and center herself. Tomas had warned her. At least he’d done that.
What was she going to do about all of this? She admitted to herself she was confused and even afraid. It was the fear that made her angry. There was a lot of fear. She was a woman who liked to make her own decisions. Maybe she didn’t always make the right decision, but who did? She learned from those mistakes and tried to do better.
She also had to admit to herself that she was, for the first time in her life, physically attracted to a man. She had no idea if it was because she had a past with him. All those letters. All those candid discussions. Even when she was a child, when she wrote to him with her ideas, he’d never made fun of her or acted as if her opinion didn’t matter. She didn’t always get that from her colleagues, even with her extensive education, internships and the fact that she had a brain. A good one.
She had experienced wanting sex because when a jaguar went into heat, it was equally uncomfortable for their shifter counterpart. When it had happened, there were no jaguar shifters to satisfy her female, and she didn’t want to randomly pick up a strange man, so she’d retreat into deep forest and ride it out. It hadn’t been easy, and she had spent a great deal of time apologizing to her jaguar for the lack of ability to see to all her needs, but she’d done her best under the circumstances.
But there was Tomas, and if she just let everything go while she was soaking in the bathtub and allowed herself a few private moments, she could definitely have some amazing fantasies with him as the star. The temptation was strong, especially since she was stuck in the tree house and couldn’t retreat. There was no running from the situation.
Information. Knowledge. That was the biggest source of power. The more she knew and understood, the more of an advantage she would have. She felt it was necessary to extricate herself from the situation. She wasn’t a woman to have her choices taken from her. She wasn’t a woman to be silenced. She needed to be in a partnership, one where she was respected.
It didn’t seem to matter what her wishes were when it came to the Carpathians. They took away choices and felt that somehow that was their right. As men? As ancient beings? It didn’t matter because that trait, clearly in every one of the five she’d met, was strong.
Sighing, she soaked her hair and began massaging the shampoo into her scalp. It hit her, as she used pressure to give herself a scalp massage, that the shampoo was her brand. She looked at the items on the sink. The conditioner waiting for her to use. She was careful with products. She had curly hair, and it could be wild and untamed, growing huge in any humidity. The shampoo and conditioner, along with several no-frizz products, were all her exact brands.
How could that be? How could Luiz have those exact products in his bathroom waiting for her to use? He couldn’t have known ahead of time and bought them for her. Everything came in on boats. He would have had to arrange it far in advance. The more she looked around, the more she realized the design of the bathroom, the tub, even the detail of the handheld water faucet was exactly as she’d pictured in her own home—if she ever had one.
She stepped onto the thick mat Luiz had on the floor and wrapped herself in a towel before going to the cabinet to examine the contents on the shelves. Her heart nearly stopped beating when she saw the dryer. For her curls, she used a very specific diffuser. It was designed to work with her type of hair. She had very thick hair and a lot of curls. She kept her hair long; otherwise, her curls would be tight little ringlets all over her head.