Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 50815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Nora Thompson is out of time. Her daughter is dying, and only Kindred medicine can save her. But it’s reserved for the families of bonded warriors—and Nora has no mate. Until she makes an offer to her a marriage of convenience, in exchange for her complete submission.
Xarex is a Dark Kindred—a fearsome, emotionless warrior. At least, he should be. But Nora makes him burn. He’s fantasized about binding her wrists, hearing her beg... and now, she’s offering herself to him freely.
He’ll marry her. He’ll save her daughter. And he’ll finally claim the woman he’s always craved. But when lust turns to something deeper, will a warrior made of darkness learn how to love in the light?
What you’ll find in this Spicy Boss/Employee, Marriage of Convenience RomanceA desperate Single Mom willing to do anything to save her daughterA cold, emotionless Dark Kindred…who can’t stop his feelings for herA trip to an alien world where they have to put on a S3X showB0ndage, Consent, Obsession, EmotionHEA ending that will give you the warm fuzzies
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
NORA
“I’m sorry, Ms. Thompson, but I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do.” Doctor Patel shook his head gravely and Nora felt her heart sink.
“But surely there has to be something—some therapy you haven’t tried. Some experimental drug trial I could get Anna into,” she protested.
He shook his head again.
“I’m afraid that Pulmonary Crystalosis is still such a new and rare disease we just don’t have many tools to fight it with. And your daughter—or is she your niece?”
“She’s my niece but I adopted her when my sister—her mother—died,” Nora said tightly. “So yes, she’s also my daughter.”
“Well, as you can see, the PC has spread throughout Anna’s lungs.”
Dr. Patel pointed to the light board where Anna’s latest X-rays hung. The darker shape of her small, bird-like chest enclosed two lighter lungs. And growing in each of the lungs was what looked like a delicate, crystalline tree with spreading branches. The one on the right was barely a sapling but the one in the left lung had blossomed into a beautiful tree in full bloom.
Beautiful and deadly, Nora thought bitterly. Anna’s X-ray looked like a work of art but it was a harbinger of her eventual doom.
No, I can’t think that way—I can’t. There must be a way to save her! I can’t lose her, not after what happened to Cora!
Cora had been Nora’s identical twin—and her opposite in every way. Nora was a paralegal with a buttoned-down nine-to-five job, a 401K, and a boring but stable relationship. Or she had been in a relationship until The Crash, anyway—which was how she thought of the accident that had taken her sister’s life. But that was a whole different story.
Cora had been beautiful and reckless—a free spirit and an artist. In short, everything Nora was not. She had no idea who Anna’s father was—and she didn’t care either, despite how scandalized their mother had been when she announced she was pregnant and keeping the baby. She’d dragged her daughter around the world on various adventures as she designed dresses and outfits for famous fashion influencers and lived the life of an itinerant artist.
Nora didn’t know where her sister had gotten her artistic flair. She herself couldn’t even sew a button on straight and her usual wardrobe consisted of modest gray and black skirts with plain button-down shirts and low, sensible heels. But despite their differences she had loved her twin sister fiercely and that love extended to her niece.
Anna had been only five at the time of The Crash. She had cried nightly for her mother and Nora had done her best to hold her and reassure her that everything would be all right, even though she felt broken inside herself. Even though they had rarely seen each other, she and Cora had texted and Face-timed multiple times a day—she felt lost without her twin.
Gradually, Anna had gotten through the worst of her grief and settled into her new life with Nora. Luckily, Nora lived close to her mother, who was able to help out by picking Anna up after school. Anna loved spending time with her “Grammie”—the two of them made cookies and watched Disney movies together.
Nora had gotten used to being a single mom too. She’d been in a stable relationship for five years prior to The Crash, but Cora’s death changed all of that. After she’d been granted sole custody of Anna, her fiancé Steve had decided he didn’t want to be a dad.
“We agreed not to have children—no kids, that was one of our core relationship goals,” he’d pointed out after the funeral when Anna was asleep in the other room—his office, which he disliked giving up, even for a little while. “You can’t break the agreement and expect me to go along for the ride.”
Nora didn’t give a damn about their “agreement” at that point. She was still grieving for her beautiful, erratic, artistic sister who she’d lost in an instant, and trying to find a way to make a life for her niece.
“Fine—go,” she’d said dismissively.
Steve had looked at her with wide, shocked eyes.
“So that’s it? You’re telling me to get out? We’re supposed to get married in two months! The venue’s already booked…the cake is ordered…the guest list—”
“I don’t give a damn about any of that,” Nora snapped, rounding on him. “Right now my priority is Anna. If you don’t want to help me raise her, then fine—you can go.”
“But what about your mother?” Steve protested. “Why can’t she raise the kid? She’s retired after all—she has plenty of time.”
“My mother is getting older and she’s frail—she can help watch Anna after school but she can’t take her full time,” Nora told him. “Besides, I love Anna—she’s all I have left of my twin! Of course I’m going to raise her, not try to pawn her off on someone else. Cora left her to me—she’s mine now and I take care of what’s mine.”