Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
In the bedroom, she placed the gown carefully on the vast bed, then stood with her back to him. He could see the tension in her shoulders, the slight hunch as she hugged herself.
“Are you all right, Mistress?” he asked, his voice softer than he intended.
“I…I’m fine.” She glanced over her shoulder, a shy look in her lovely eyes that said she was anything but “fine.”
“What’s wrong?” Braze asked, frowning. “Don’t you want me to help you undress? I’m pretty sure the Empress will expect your ‘husband’ to help you.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said, and gave a self-deprecating little laugh. “I guess I’m just nervous to be all the way naked in front of you.”
“Why would you be?” he asked, honestly mystified. A cold thread of worry wormed its way through the heat in his veins. “You don’t think…you’re not afraid I’ll attack you, are you? I mean, I know I should have asked permission in the throne room, but I would never—”
“No, no,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “I know you’d never hurt me, Braze. I’m just nervous because you’re so big and muscular and in such good shape and I’m, well…I could stand to lose some weight. That’s what my ex-husband always said, anyway,” she added, looking down.
Immediate, white-hot fury at her ex-mate burned through Braze’s body.
“Your ex-mate sounds like an asshole,” he growled. “Didn’t he realize that you’re an Elite—a woman the Goddess herself has blessed with extra generous curves?”
“An Elite? Is that a Kindred thing?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“You could say that.” Braze nodded firmly, taking a step closer. He needed to correct this poison her ex-mate had poured into her heart. “We fucking love Elites—curvy women are the Kindred ideal,” he told her.
“They are?” She turned to face him fully now, and he saw the genuine uncertainty on her face. It made his heart twist in his chest—what kind of things had that fucker told her? Whatever it was, it must have been bad.
“Yeah, they are, Mistress,” he said, his voice dropping to a low, intense rumble. “Now will you let me help you get undressed and then put you into that slinky new gown the Mistress of the Wardrobe gave you to wear?”
“Oh—of course.”
He moved behind her again, his fingers finding the buttons of her simple gown. Each button he freed revealed more of her beautiful body and he wanted to see it all.
The curve of her spine…the soft swell of her hips beneath the fabric…the delicate scent of her skin—everything about her drew him—made him want her more. When the last button was undone, he gently pushed the gown from her shoulders. It slid down her arms and pooled at her feet in a soft heap of fabric.
Kaitlyn turned and stood before him, completely naked. But she immediately crossed her arms over her breasts, trying to shrink in on herself.
“Let me see you,” he said, the command gentle but undeniable. When she still hesitated he reminded her, “A wife—especially a dominant wife—wouldn’t be ashamed for her husband to see her body.”
“I guess you’re right.”
After a heartbeat’s hesitation, she took a deep breath and let her arms fall to her sides. Straightening up, she lifted her chin—an invitation to look.
Braze looked his fill. He let himself linger on her broad hips and luscious thick thighs and then allowed his gaze to travel to the dark, silky patch of curls between them, up over the soft mound of her belly. There were stretch marks there—proof of her fertility which he found beautiful. He lingered again on the lush, heavy weight of her breasts with their dusky pink nipples drawn tight and then moved to the vulnerable line of her throat and the elegant, mature beauty of her face.
She wasn’t too skinny like a lot of Earth women. Braze had seen human porn and a lot of it involved women who looked almost childish—too thin with hardly any breasts and shaved pubic hair. Such images repelled him—he wanted a real woman—one who had lived and loved and had the laugh-lines around her mouth and the corners of her eyes to prove it.
As he looked at Kaitlyn, he couldn’t keep the raw, hungry lust from his expression. It felt like his blood was surging.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he growled, and his voice came out hoarse—scraped raw by the sight of her. Truly, she had been made in the image of the Goddess—the original Mother of All Life, he thought.
Kaitlyn gave a little, breathless laugh and looked down, a faint smile touching her lips.
“Well, at least I can tell you’re telling the truth,” she said, and nodded pointedly at his groin, where his erection was straining blatantly against the thin silk panel, making an unmistakable tent in the maroon fabric.
Braze coughed, a flush of heat rising up his neck.