Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
His eyes roll. “I’m not afraid of sex.”
But it kind of makes sense. All of his life he’s known this is his power. As a kid it was all latent power, but now it’s here and he’s ascended to a place no one thought was possible. “You’ve talked about how hard it was to be in school. How all the teachers wore charms and shields around you and tried to stay away.”
Because being around him was enough to cause women to ovulate and several got pregnant, one after she swore she was in menopause. It must have been isolating to a young child. He couldn’t control it.
“I’m not a child anymore, Shy. I can control it. I can control myself,” he says with grim resolve.
“And if I don’t want you to?”
He shakes his head. “You don’t know what you want. When the time is right, we’ll cement our bond.”
He is so annoying. “So I don’t know what I want and I’m neither smart enough nor strong enough to fight in a war against the man who murdered my entire family.”
“I never said that. I don’t think you should have to.”
“And you get to make all of the rules when it comes to me.”
He stares at me like he knows it’s a trap. He falls in anyway. “I am your commanding officer.”
I lean in so he can’t possibly mistake me. “Then I’ll make it easy for you. I quit. Now you don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’ll fight with Lily and the witches. And you can explain to your sister why her best friend is no longer in her unit. I’m staying with Cassie and you can fuck yourself.”
I turn and start for the door.
I hear him growl behind me, and I wish I could say my heart rate didn’t triple.
This is it. If he finds his control and lets me go, I will hold the line. I will move forward, and it will be without Rhys Donovan-Quinn. I’ll know this is all fear. Know that he picked me because I was out of reach and safe, and now he’s trying to buy himself more time by shoving me in a sithein and going on about his life.
I reach for the door and begin to open it. A hard hand slams the door closed and I feel him behind me.
My spine straightens as he leans in.
“If you think for one second that I will allow you to leave, you don’t know me at all.”
So arrogant. “If you think you control me, you don’t know me.”
I hear him breathing, feel his nose run along the nape of my neck. “I know you. Shy, I am trying to show you that you are not some sort of control mechanism for me. You are precious. You hold my heart.”
“But not your body.”
He groans and his head leans against mine. “You own all of me. Every cell in my body, every spark of magic I have is yours. And Shy, my cock is absolutely yours. Don’t you dare tell me I don’t want you.”
He rubs against me, and I feel the evidence of his desire.
It takes everything I have not to arch my backside into that hard piece of masculinity. I can feel my own magic pulsing inside me.
I didn’t know I had real magic. Not until I stepped onto this plane. It might only ever work here, and I feel drugged by it. I feel powerful and vulnerable all at the same time.
“I want you, too, Rhys.”
“Then marry me. I need you to understand that the minute my body penetrates yours I will consider you my wife. I will not touch another woman for all my days.”
And this is why I’m scared. “Rhys, we can’t know I’m your goddess until we sleep together, and what happens if I’m not?”
“You are. Shahidi, if you say you’ll marry me, I’ll take you right here. Right now. I’ll let my power flow and wake every plant and tree and flower in this sithein.”
His words wash over me like cold water.
“You can’t.” Shit. He can’t. “I think there would be a few questions as to why Devinshea brought a far more powerful fertility god back to his place. I don’t think your father is very open in this timeline. You exploding the gardens will bring too much attention.”
I hear him hiss and then his fist pounds on the door.
I didn’t think at all. I just wanted, and the tension between us is killing me. I know part of his unmitigated assholery is because he has no place to put his energy. Which is more powerful here. My love is a swirling storm of anger and fear and bad history and magic he doesn’t yet understand.
He steps back and I turn. My heart aches at the pain I see on his face, and I will do anything. When my heart seems so full of him, I know my hesitation is going to come for nothing. I know I’ll fall into his arms no matter how irritated I am with him.