Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107720 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“I know.” I weaved my fingers in his hair, pulling him back down. “I feel it too.”
He fell on me again, his tongue fierce and slick.
The need grew worse, infecting us with mindless hunger.
Lucien’s hand slid higher under my nightgown, his fingers scorching my inner thigh.
My hips swayed toward him, not caring where we were or what all of this meant.
He cursed, low and filthy, pressing me backward until my shoulders hit something solid that wasn’t there a second ago. He broke the kiss, panting into my mouth.
He held me as if he wanted to wring my neck and worship me at the same time. “I hate you for hurting yourself for me.”
“Same.” I nuzzled his nose with mine. “I hate you for leaving me instead of talking to me. I hate that you didn’t give me a chance to help you. I hate that you tried to protect me—”
“I get it.” His teeth flashed with a vicious smile. “You hate me. So you better give me the chance to earn your forgiveness...one orgasm at a time.”
His mouth found mine again as he fumbled with his zipper.
I reached to help him—
Our clothes suddenly vanished, leaving us bare and aching.
He snarled as my hand wrapped around his hot hardness—
A shrill scream tore like lightning through the sky.
We froze.
A volley of bangs followed, dull and muted as if it happened in an entirely different world to this one.
“What...?” Lucien frowned.
Something shook me violently.
Something I couldn’t see.
The sky tore like wet paper—
The dream shattered as reality crashed back with brutal force. The power, the strength, the safety—all of it vanished, leaving me weak and empty, back in a broken body.
I wanted to scream at the unfairness of it. I wanted to go back to being better, but...sunshine blinded me as I lay flat on my back. My nightgown was nice and demure, and Lucien lay beside me unconscious, his shirt parted as if revealing the truth that whatever had happened wasn’t real.
Unlike the fantasy where his chest was smooth and metal-free, the vitalsync core was back—imprisoning his heart with that hated pacemaker.
My head throbbed trying to understand.
Had it all been a dream?
A quick, sexual dream where everything had felt so, so real?
The shake came again—the same shake I’d felt but couldn’t see.
Squinting in the searing sunshine, I gasped as Dillon jerked me upright. “We’ve got to run. Now!”
“Run?” I swallowed back another mouthful of bitter nausea.
I preferred the dream.
“Someone is firing at us.” Scooping an arm under my back and knees, he hauled me from the bed. Whisper hissed and jumped off the mattress, headbutting my bodyguard’s hip as if demanding he put me down.
Dillon ignored the panther and ran for the door. “They shot all the Snowflake Corp guards. We have to go. Right the fuck now!”
Chapter Six
I SLAMMED AWAKE FOR THE SECOND time.
The room swam. Blinding sunlight and bleeding watercolours slowly manifested into my bedroom in Ashfall Cliff.
A pounding headache threatened to split my skull.
What happened?
Where was the snow? The need? The blissful return of the fire warming my bones?
“Lucien!”
My head snapped to the side. My gaze locked on another man carrying my woman and every scrap of lingering haze turned into possessive rage.
“Get your fucking hands off her,” I snarled, shoving upright even as the room tilted.
Seeing him carry her to the door made something primal and ugly claw its way up my spine. The urge to burn him alive came with vicious intensity, but...the fire never ignited. If I wanted to teach him a lesson, I’d have to do it with my fists—
Gunfire cracked outside with sharp, staccato bursts. A window beside the closed double doors shattered as masculine shouts rang out then silenced.
“What the fuck is going on?” Half-marching, half-staggering toward Dillon, I grabbed Rook’s wrist and tugged. “Put her down.”
“She won’t be able to run,” Dillon snapped, already moving away from the door, heading toward the circular window framing the view of the valley. “Trust me to carry her and focus on staying upright. You’re both as weak as each other.”
I bared my teeth, lurching after him on unsteady legs. “What’s happened? What—?”
Another crack of gunfire sounded.
The double doors smashed inward as Uncle Wen stumbled through, blood streaking the side of his face from a gash above his eyebrow. He gripped his cane in one hand while his other arm was wrapped tight around Auntie Mei.
“Xiao Lu,” Auntie Mei whimpered, her eyes wide with fright. “You need to run. Both of you!”
True fear shot through me.
Uncle Wen’s panicked gaze found mine. “They’re on the wall.”
“Shit.” Dillon shifted Rook in his arms, touching the silver piece of metal in his ear. “Jon? You there? Magnus? Anyone?” Spitting another curse, he looked at me with worry. “No one is answering. Not one of the guards I stationed outside has replied.”