Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Chest squeezing, I shut those thoughts down. I wasn’t ready to really go there.
“Poppy?”
I glanced up at Casteel, picking up on the concern in his voice. “I forgot,” I said, poking at my teeth. “I have fangs.” I dropped my hand.
Casteel stared at me for a moment, and then he let out a deep, throaty laugh.
“What?” I asked.
“Gods, I’ve missed you.” He closed the distance between us in one fluid motion, his palms sliding up my bare arms. The rough calluses from years of handling a sword caused a wave of heat to surge through my body as energy danced from his skin to mine. He tugged me onto my knees and against his hard chest.
“Poppy, I…” he said, his voice straining. I felt his hand tremble as he cupped my cheek.
I searched his gaze, feeling tangy anguish with a touch of bitterness brushing against my senses. My heart turned over heavily. “Cas—?”
His lips met mine, and the knot of turmoil within him seemed to loosen, unraveling slowly. The kisses were slow and infinitely tender but no less fierce than the deeper ones that bordered on madness. A tremor swept through me as my blood heated, stirring the essence beneath my skin. The spicy, smoky flavor of his lust mingled with the sweet and rich taste of his love as he circled an arm around my waist. He deepened the kiss, his tongue dancing with mine and then flicking over the tip of my fang.
I gasped as an intense, nerve-frying pulse of red-hot pleasure shot from there straight to my core. My gods. Would it always feel like that? With just a touch of his tongue to a fang? My eyes closed, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulder, burying my fingers in his hair.
He pulled me tightly to him, and I felt the length of him hard and thick against my belly.
Groaning, he broke the kiss. His head dropped to the crook of my neck. “Gods, Poppy.” He breathed in deeply. “You have no idea…” He kissed the skin next to the sleeve of my gown. “How much self-control it’s taking for me not to get between those pretty thighs of yours and then inside you.”
A surge of liquid heat pounded through me, gathering in that area he had just spoken of.
His lips grazed the slope of my neck. “I want to…” he whispered, nudging my head back, his mouth traveling up the column of my throat. “I want to fuck you until neither of us knows where we end and the other begins.”
A heady flush stained my skin as muscles low in my stomach coiled. My heart pounded. “I want that, too.”
Casteel’s hand slid up my back as he pressed a kiss to my neck. “That’s not helping when I’m trying to behave myself.”
I shivered as I felt his warm breath against my pulse. “Why would you do such an out-of-character thing?”
Casteel’s chuckle was low and smoky. “Because I’m trying to be mature.” He fisted his hand in my braid and pulled my head back more.
The hold was possessive. Dominant. And the essence flared inside me, almost as if it were its own entity, urging me to push back—to take control. But at the same time, his actions sent a wanton bolt of heated desire through me.
His chest rumbled against mine as he no doubt picked up on the scent of my desire. “Poppy,” he growled. He nipped at my skin, dragging a sharp whimper from me. “I’m trying to be responsible.”
The ache between my thighs pulsed. “It really doesn’t seem that way.”
“I know.” His hold on my braid loosened. “I’m really bad at behaving.”
“It’s one of the many things I love about you.”
“I do remember a time when you found that personality trait of mine to be quite infuriating,” he noted.
“True,” I admitted. “But, at the same time, I enjoyed that infuriating trait of yours.”
“I know,” he repeated, inhaling deeply. “The scent of your desire—the taste of it? Sweet and spicy.” A low rumble came from his chest as he closed his eyes. “I want to drown in it.”
I leaned into him, wanting him to be really, really irresponsible. His eyes reopened, and there was a…faint silver glow behind his dilated pupils.
I halted, my lips parting as I watched the aura brighten. I was pretty sure I’d never seen that in his eyes before.
“But…” He drew in a deep breath. “You’ve been asleep, Poppy.”
Something in his tone silenced the budding questions about the aura of eather. Unease crept to life, cooling the heat in my blood.
“And you weren’t just sleeping, Poppy. You were in stasis.”
I started to frown, but something about what he said stirred up memories of darkness—vast, endless nothingness that wasn’t…what? I wasn’t sure where my thoughts were going with that. “How long?”
Casteel didn’t answer immediately. “For over two weeks.”