Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149148 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Hallie struggled to breathe.
MJ couldn’t breathe either.
“He told us in explicit detail what Odessa had been able to make Helios do. It wasn’t dirty! Even I knew it wasn’t bad, wasn’t dirty, wasn’t wrong! What Helios did, he did it out of love. But the way Herod spoke of it...”
Hallie looked at MJ with beseeching eyes. “You understand now, right? He’s just afraid. That’s all. He’s just afraid.”
Chapter Six
IT WAS WHEN MJ STARTED loading the dishwasher that she realized she was not alone in the kitchen. Heart jumping to her throat, she spun around, arm raised in a defensive stance, ready to beat the intruder to death in case he wanted to do something nasty.
But it was only Helios.
She let out a loud sigh of relief. “You scared me. I thought you were a bad guy.”
Helios raised a brow. “And if I were, would you have tried scaring me away with a...whisk?”
MJ glanced down at what she was holding. Oh. She was indeed holding a whisk. Deeeeym. She put it in the sink. Looking back at Helios, it suddenly hit her that it was just two of them in the kitchen. Her heart started beating faster again at the realization.
Helios still stood at the kitchen’s doorway, wearing only a pair of sweat pants and nothing else. He looked, as always, larger than life, and when he took a step inside the kitchen, MJ’s mouth went dry. Each step that took him closer to her made MJ feel more nervous and restless. His hair was unbound, which meant he had been about to sleep – or had already been sleeping. Helios only left his hair untied when he was inside his bedroom.
“D-Did I wake you up?” Logically speaking, that couldn’t have been possible if he had been in his bedroom, which was four floors above the kitchen.
Instead of answering, Helios closed the distance between them. He had paced his room endlessly while waiting for her to come back. It was her first time to stay out this late, and not knowing the reason for it ate at him.
“Where have you been?”
She did not even think of lying or asking why it was his business to know. There was something ominous in Helios’ voice, telling her she would be better off not arguing. And so she said quietly, “I joined a photography club. Tonight was a lunar eclipse...”
A photography club. Maybe that club was made up of yet another group of men?
The words were out before he could stop himself. “And do you have a secret crush there, too?”
Helios’ snide question had her blinking in hurt confusion. “What are you saying?”
“You tell me.” His control had snapped, his mind filled with visions of MJ surrounded by men. And this time, those men were not of his club, men who were not under his control and did not owe him allegiance.
“I’m beginning to wonder if your secret crush even exists at all. Or maybe it’s all a product of a cunningly crafted strategy so you can flirt with everyone, have everyone’s attention, and nobody will think you’re a slut—”
MJ’s slap cut the rest of his words off.
For a moment, they stared at each other. MJ’s eyes flashed with hurt anger. Helios’ gaze seared her with contempt...and something else that she couldn’t name.
And then he moved.
The next thing she knew, he had her half-lying on the table and he was standing between her legs. “No one ever touches me.”
That was when she remembered Hallie’s words.
And her heart broke.
The pain his cruel words had caused left her, pushed away by the pain she felt for him. She whispered, “I’m sorry. I won’t ever touch you without your permission. I’m sorry.”
There was so much she wanted to say but knew it wasn’t the right time to say any of them. So she could only stay quiet and immobile, looking at him and yearning. She yearned to touch him. She yearned to touch him so he would know he wasn’t alone. The same way that she had thought of him all these years, all those times she had lain on the ground and told herself that she wasn’t alone because somewhere in the world, there was a person like him who could save her. Who would want to save her.
Just wanting to save her was enough.
“Don’t look at me like that.” His voice was raspy with need. With her soft and pliant body under his, Helios knew it would never be the same between them again. Now that he knew how she felt, how perfect she damn felt next to him, it would not be the same. He wanted to fuck her, wanted to possess her, wanted her to make him her world.
But something had changed, Helios realized. One moment, she was hurt and confused. The next moment, she wasn’t. Instead, she was...she was looking at him like she wanted to be kissed. Like she wanted to be touched. Like she wanted to be his.