Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
He stumbled forward, dazed as he jerked the knife from his stomach.
Blood gushed from the wound—a thick, sticky red. Like the wounds Pax and I woke up with after being burned in Faydor. Shocked, he stared down at it before he lifted his malicious gaze to me.
I was frozen in it.
This thing that felt like a crossroads.
We stayed that way for a prolonged beat before he suddenly turned and ran down the far side of the building, far faster than either Pax or I could run.
Our own shock held us there, our breaths panted and harsh as we tried to make sense of what had happened.
Then Pax was in front of me, begging, “Are you hurt?”
I could hardly shake my head. “No. I barely cut my finger, but it’s nothing. Are you?”
“No, I’m fine.” His palms flew to my cheeks, cupping them as he stared at me. “Fuck, Aria, I was so fuckin’ scared when I turned around after grabbing that kid from the street and you weren’t there. Knew immediately what had happened.”
“I’m okay. I’m okay. I . . .”
I looked back to where Ambrose had disappeared before I turned back to him.
And that was the second we knew. When we understood what our connection meant.
We were stronger together.
The bond between us that had pulled us through time and realm amplifying our power.
We were meant for this—for this love that, for so many years, we’d been told was forbidden.
But no . . .
No . . .
Joy spiraled with the intensity that ricocheted between me and Pax, and in a flash, Pax’s mouth descended on mine, his kiss frantic as he twisted one hand up in my hair and clutched me against him with the other.
His mouth pressed and begged, his tongue stroking against mine in a bid of desperation.
Passion spiraled.
Speeding through our veins and whispering down into our souls.
Love and lust and every chain that had tried to hold us back.
He hoisted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist at the same time that I wound my arms around his neck.
I kissed him with the same fervency he kissed me with.
The need that boiled between us urgent and acute.
He didn’t break the kiss as he stepped over the man who was knocked out, face down on the ground, and carried me around the side of the building.
His tongue sought and his spirit thrummed while I breathed this new belief into his being.
“Pax.”
“Fuck, Aria, fuck,” he mumbled frantically against my lips.
When we got to the front of the building, he reluctantly set me on my feet, though he took my hand, and we raced across the lot to his car. He whipped the door open and helped me inside before he ducked in to take another desperate kiss.
He broke it long enough to jog around the front of the car, and he jumped into the driver’s seat; then he was reaching for me from over the console. Hot hands glided over every inch of my body he could get to, his mouth possessing mine again.
A groan rolled up his throat when he forced himself away. Ragged breaths jutted from his mouth, which remained an inch from mine. “Need to be inside you, right fuckin’ now.”
I leaned over the console, and I kissed up under his jaw and scratched my nails under his jacket and over his tee, searching for a way to sink all the way into him.
“And I need it. I need you to be. Right now,” I whispered back.
His hand clamped down on the inside of my thigh before he threw the car into reverse and whipped out of the spot.
Chapter Nineteen
Pax
I could not make it back to the motel fast enough. That single mile felt like fifty as Aria continued to kiss along my throat and dig those nails into my skin as we traveled.
Her hair bunched up in my face, the scent of coconut and goodness filling my senses.
Her aura all around.
Whatever the fuck had happened back there was still pumping through our veins and driving this craze that encircled us.
I took a sharp left into the motel parking lot, careening across to a spot that was close to the stairs.
I barely had it in park and shut off before I was back to kissing her like our lives depended on it.
Wondered if they did.
If all this was dependent on the two of us being together, hinged on Nols’ connections being so much greater than we’d ever believed.
The only thing I knew right then was this girl made me better. That touching her lit something in my spirit that otherwise would have remained dead.
Undiscovered.
Aria crawled across the console to wrap herself back around me. “Need you,” she muttered at my mouth.
I tossed open the door and climbed out with her in my arms, kissing her mad, the way she was kissing me. Unable to stop, rasps of words making it out through the plucking and pulling of our lips. “You have me. You fuckin’ have me, Aria. All of me.”