Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“I think my eyes are going to fall out if I read one more word about Henry the Fifth, but otherwise, I’m okay.”
I rest my arms on his shoulders, bringing him close and leaning in to kiss him.
At first it felt strange, being able to kiss him anywhere I wanted, not worrying who was going to see us.
But now it would feel impossible not to do it.
“I keep thinking about Lune, lately,” he says as he pulls back a little.
I let my arms stay around his shoulders as he looks off at the fire, crackling away.
I watch the reflection of the flames dance in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Hunter.”
He shakes his head. “It’s okay. I think of Lune all the time, to be fair. But now… now there’s something a little sweeter about it. It might sound crazy, but I’m glad she didn’t have to be here to see all of this.”
I rub his shoulder. “I understand.”
“She’s free from all of this. From who our father really turned out to be. I miss her more than anything, but I’m so glad she’s free.”
“You’re the strongest person I know, Hunter.”
He puffs out a little breath of air. “Is that right?”
“Of course. I don’t know how you do it. How do you manage? When it feels like the whole world is going to swallow you whole? When nothing feels hopeful anymore?”
He turns and rests his forehead on mine.
His hand finds its way to my hair, and he strokes it gently.
“There have been so many times I thought I couldn’t keep going.”
I pull in a breath. “What did you do?”
“I kept going out of spite.”
The fireplace pops, and I rest against Hunter’s warmth, the enormity of the past few months floating around me.
It feels like the whole world we knew went up in flames.
But now, in the ashes, I see something new.
Something so hopeful.
Out of spite, Hunter told me.
Maybe that’s how it always goes. The new green grass, sprouting from the ashes after an inferno.
Seeds deep under the soil, planted long ago, using the ash to grow.
He’s right.
After everything, we have to keep going.
Out of spite.
Out of sheer determination, because nothing is going to force us to give up.
I pull in a breath of his clean, warmly spiced scent, suddenly feeling that glimmer of new beginnings, of hope.
“Hunter,” I say softly, reaching down to hold one of his hands in mine.
My heart beats in my chest.
Steady, but quickening.
“What’s up, king?” he says.
“I love you.”
I feel him exhale. Feel his hand tighten against mine.
It’s simple, and it’s the exact truth. Honesty over everything. He doesn’t have to respond, and I know there’s a world where he won’t.
But instead he grips my hand harder, pulling me tight.
“Damn it, Rayne,” he says in a whisper near my ear.
“You don’t have to say it back, Hunter—”
“I love you,” he says, urgently, like it’s something that’s been weighing on his soul for longer than this moment. “I love you so much it hurts. And when I saw you like that, tied up, by someone else’s hand—”
He clutches me close, like he’s afraid to let go.
So I don’t let go.
I stay close with him there on our little corner of the big sofa, holding him. Pouring every ounce of love I have into one embrace.
“And then you saved me,” I tell him, burying my nose in the white-blond of his hair.
He puffs out a little breath. “You saved yourself. You saved us, and you know it.”
I grip him tight.
Making sure he feels how real it is.
He’s loved.
And he’s never going to have to live another day thinking he’s unlovable, and believing that he’ll always be alone.
Because Hunter Knox may be fucked up, or lost, or broken.
But if he is, then I’m the same thing.
Together, it feels like two wrongs come together and make something right. Something I needed long before I was aware of it. And that’s the most honest love I’ve ever had.
We fall asleep together in my bed that night, laced in each other’s arms just like we were on the sofa.
We shift in bed in the middle of the night.
I blink my eyes open, half-asleep.
And I feel him press up against the side of my body, his cock hard on my thigh.
We’re wordless as our lips come together.
And the wet heat of his tongue slides out onto mine.
In a fumbling rush, he pushes me onto my side, sliding his cock between my thighs.
It’s fast. Desperate. He bucks his hips as his cock pushes between my thighs. I squeeze them tight together, flexing around him, making it tight for him, but his breathing becomes heavy and I know he wants more.
I want more, too. I want everything.
“Need you,” he utters.
I run my lips along his neck. “You know I’m yours.”
He fumbles for the condom and lube in the drawer nearby, and it’s only minutes before he’s pushing into me. My fingers grip the sheets as he fucks me hard, his lips coming down onto my neck from behind.