Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109674 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
A pained gasp reminded me of the fight happening below us. My cheeks heated. How much had these men seen? How much had they heard? I hadn’t held back my screams when I’d come.
Nestore stroked my warm skin. “You worry too much. I’ll kill them so they take those memories to the grave with them.” He gripped my hips and lifted me off his lap and onto the seat beside his. I sank my teeth into my lower lip at the strange sensation in my butt. Nestore wiped himself clean with a napkin and then pulled up his pants. “I’ll fight now. Wait for me.”
I nodded, my lids heavy with tiredness. When Nestore disappeared, I pulled up my panties and draped my skirt over my legs. I shifted uncomfortably when I felt the proof of our joining run out of me.
Why had Nestore claimed me like this, right here? Did he want to dominate me? To remind me of his power? I wasn’t sure. He always made sure I felt pleasure.
Nestore appeared in the pit below. Tonight, I wasn’t scared for him.
None of the fighters could win against him.
Thirty minutes later, both his opponents were bloody corpses.
I rose to my feet, ready to leave and go to bed. I ascended the staircase to the upper landing, then took down the long winding staircase to the lower floor. Nestore was waiting for me by the exit, covered in blood and new bruises. He held out his hand, the only clean part of him. Had he cleaned it so he could touch me?
I linked our fingers, and together, we walked out, then up the long pathway back to the mansion I despised.
My ass was sore, and every step ached, which should have been torture, but beyond that, it turned me on. It had been painful, but the orgasms that followed had made up for it, and I yearned for more. Not that I thought my body could take it. If Nestore decided to shove his cock into my back entrance again soon, he’d probably split me in two.
“You look at our home as if it were your demise.”
“It is, and it is yours too,” I said. I couldn’t wait to get out of my clothes, especially my ruined panties.
For once, Nestore didn’t argue. Maybe he was finally coming around.
“But I’ll brave these haunted walls for you, Nestore.”
His jaw tightened, and his fingers twitched against mine.
Back in our primary bedroom, Nestore and I showered together. He gently cleaned my most private area with a washcloth. I did the same for him, being extra gentle so I wouldn’t irritate his many scars.
When we curled up in bed together, I pressed a kiss to his throat.
“When I hunted you, I longed for your hatred and fear, but now all I crave is your love.” He sounded tortured, as if those words doomed him.
“You have it,” I admitted in a whisper. I had never stopped loving him, even when I wanted to hate him.
Nestore stilled, his breath halting. He released it in a rush. “I lied.”
I pulled back to look at his handsome face. “About what?”
“About my firsts.”
I blinked, not sure I heard him right. “What do you mean?” A small flame of hope flickered in my chest, but I was terrified his next words would extinguish it.
He cupped my cheek, self-hatred edged into his face. “When you ran, I tried to be with another woman, to have her suck me off, but I couldn’t even bear her touch. Her fingers against my skin made me want to rip them off her hand.”
“You mean…”
“My firsts were yours too. Like I promised all those years ago.”
Tears shot into my eyes, and I didn’t hold them back. “But how? How did I not notice?”
“I’m a man who’s learned to put on a show, to become someone other for people not to see my true self. You saw what you expected to see.”
I shook my head. “You knew what to do.”
“I watched and learned.” Nestore wiped the tears off my cheeks with his thumb.
I kissed his chest, then his throat, and last his lips. “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me. You are all mine.”
“I always was and always will be, dove. My heart rests in your pretty palms, and it’s on you to either squash it or keep it safe. Nobody else holds that power.”
“And you hate that,” I said thickly.
“I must hate something, and it can’t be you.”
I woke to an empty bed. Without bothering to turn on the lights, I grabbed my dressing gown, allowing the moonlight streaming in through the windows to guide my way. It would be even darker where I’d go next.
I had a sinking feeling that I knew where I’d find Nestore.
He’d been vulnerable by admitting his firsts were mine, and now he needed to feel powerful again, to unleash the hatred and rage he couldn’t unleash on me.