Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
“You’re thinking too much.” Shifting her wrists into the hold of one hand, his finger traced the space between her brows, barely touching. “Stone makes you shut down. Hunter makes you fight. But me? I make you think.”
He was right. He broke down her walls and found her soft underbelly. She was most vulnerable with Ash, which meant he was the most dangerous despite feeling the safest. “I don’t know what you want.”
“I want to play with you. Nothing too intense. I’d planned to leave you be, but…” He glanced at her breast. “You’re quite the temptation.”
He released her hands and she automatically started to lower her arms.
“Nyet.” He pressed them back down. “I want you still. Mine to play with and explore. Understand?”
He traced a finger slowly over the swell of her breast and her breathing turned labored. “Y-yes.”
“Good, printessa.” He stripped off his shirt and tossed it to the floor.
Ripples of muscle stacked neatly along his trim torso and ropes of thick sinew corded his tattooed arms. He bent over her, teasing her lips with his, so their breath mingled.
“You worry too much. You don’t trust us. I know it’s too soon. But in time, you’ll see. We’re nothing you need to fear.”
His mouth teased featherlight kisses down her throat, so tender and hypnotizing. He touched her in all the right places, removing the strain in her muscles and replacing her anxiety with yearning.
“Kiss me,” he whispered, and she eagerly gave in to his command.
His tongue skated delicately over hers.
“Nyet.” His thumb dragged slowly over her lips. “When you kiss me, you kiss me like you mean it.” His hand closed loosely around her throat, not applying pressure, but implying how easily he could snap her neck if he wanted to. “Like your life depends on it, printessa.”
This time, when his lips grazed hers, she angled up and sealed her mouth to his. He groaned in satisfaction and deepened the kiss, his tongue stroking over hers with possessive claim as he stated without words how attracted he was to her.
When they broke apart, they were both panting. “That was much better, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” she confessed.
“I like intensity. Whether we’re cuddling or fucking, I expect you to be uninhibited by shame or pride or whatever else is filling that head of yours. I want everything raw and unfiltered between us. Honest. Understand?”
She nodded.
“Good.” He glanced down at her chest. “You don’t fear me. Why do you think that is?”
But she did fear him. Unlike the others, Ash knew how to get inside of her psyche. “You’re…different. You weren’t mean to me like the others. You’re patient.”
Laughter rumbled in his chest. “Stone has patience. He just uses it like a weapon. Hunter...” Ash shrugged. “Hunter doesn’t believe in patience. He believes in now.”
Was he actually opening up to her? The more she knew about them, about what made them tick, the more likely she was to survive them. “And what do you believe?”
“I believe in watching. Your body language tells me everything I need to know.”
“That’s very clinical.”
“No. Clinical is Stone counting your breaths to calculate exactly when you’ll shatter. This is reverence. I won’t be satisfied with obedience alone. I want your trust.”
She lowered her gaze. She could never trust them. The moment she did, she’d be lost. They wanted to hurt her family. She couldn’t overlook that, no matter how horrible Jordan was, they would always share DNA. Therefore, they would always resent her for her sibling’s crimes.
“You’re overthinking again.”
“I’m not a doll who can just lay here—”
His hand covered her mouth. “That sass is what got you in trouble earlier.”
Something hardened inside of her. She bit his hand and he ripped it away, hissing out a swear in Russian.
He examined the bite mark and threw his head back, laughing with true amusement. “She has teeth!”
“And I bite.”
His grin turned smoldering. “So I’ve learned.” He surprised her with another mind bending kiss that left her off balance. He didn’t fully pull away, as he whispered over her mouth, “One day, you’ll trust me enough to take you apart, because you’ll learn how incredible it can feel when we’re broken into pieces. How freeing.”
“I’ll never—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “You will, because you’ll believe with all you are that I will put you back together after. You will learn to trust me, printessa.”
“Stone didn’t—”
“Stone is Stone. I am Ash.” He cupped her face, thumb tracing her cheekbone. “I like learning which pieces fit where. Which ones make you gasp. Which ones make you beg.” His voice dropped, honey over gravel. “I like finding the sharp edges you didn’t know you had.”
“That sounds...”
“Dangerous?” He smiled, and there it was, that flash of something predatory beneath the gentle exterior. “We’re all dangerous, printessa. I’m just better at hiding it.”
Which made him the riskiest one of all. At least with Hunter she knew what she might be getting. And Stone had shown his true colors. But Ash was a mystery in many ways, curious but gentle, demanding but patient.