Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75388 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
I have nothing practical to offer, which is a real bummer. A bartender on an ice planet is about as useful as a runway model.
Stacy takes a chunk of the fleshy white root, dices it, and then adds a bit more grease and a few other ingredients I don’t recognize before patting it into a cake and then puts it on the skillet over the fire. “How’s your roommate?”
“The same.”
“She like the cake I made for her? Should I make her more?”
I shrug. “I can take her more if you make them, but I don’t know if she’ll eat them.” I don’t point out that she didn’t eat the last one. Someone’s here and actually talking to me, and I don’t want to scare her off. “You seen Farli lately? She usually hangs out with me.” The teenager is my best buddy in the cave, it seems.
“She went with the others for the sa-kohtsk hunt. Pashov went with them. Georgie, too.”
“Are they going to be hunting?” I try to picture the chief’s wife and teenage Farli attacking one of those things.
“Probably just going to help out and get out of the cave for a while before the brutal season hits.”
Right. Because winter is coming, yadda yadda. I’ve been hearing a lot about it for weeks now, but I don’t see how it can get much worse than it already is.
Stacy looks up and smiles at someone behind me. “Hey, Josie. How are you feeling?”
I look up as Josie drops onto the stool next to me. There’s a pale cast to her face, and her hair is limp and sweaty. “Awful. Did I say I wanted morning sickness? Clearly I’m insane.” Her hands go to her stomach. “Please tell me this doesn’t last long.”
“It doesn’t last long,” Stacy parrots.
“Liar.”
“You didn’t ask for the truth,” Stacy retorts. “Here, I’m making you cakes. Maybe you can keep them down.”
Josie puts a finger under her nose as if to block out the smell. “I guess. I wish Haeden was here.” She blinks back huge tears. “I hate that I’ve been sick all day and he’s off hunting. I need him.”
“Oh, honey,” Stacy says, voice soft. “You’re hormonal. He went with Maylak’s hunting party. They’re getting a khui for that cute baby of hers. You know he can’t stay in the cave and stroke your hair all day.”
“Can’t he?” she says wistfully. She looks over at me as if noticing me for the first time. “Did you not go out with the others, Maddie?”
“Didn’t feel like it,” I lie. Obviously Josie has been in her cave enough that she doesn’t know that I wasn’t invited. I’m not going to disabuse her of that notion. “Thought I’d stick around and hang out here.”
“It’s boring without my Haeden,” Josie says, sighing gustily.
Stacy just rolls her eyes.
“Having a hard time staying busy?” I ask. God, I know how that feels.
“Not in the ways I want to be busy,” Josie says with a pout.
“Overshare,” Stacy says, flipping a cake and then sliding it onto one of her plates.
“Oh, come on. I’m pregnant. Sometimes you get an itch and it really, really needs to be scratched. You weren’t horny when you were pregnant, Stace?”
Stacy holds the plate out to Josie. “I’m sure I was, but I’m also pretty sure Maddie doesn’t want to hear about your sex life.”
Josie takes the plate from Stacy and looks over at me. “Sorry.”
“Oh, it’s all right. At least one of us is having sex.” And for some reason, the moment the words come out of my mouth, I think of Hassen.
You wish me to fuck you? I accept.
I suddenly feel very restless. I think of the way his skin felt under my hands, the warmth of his body, how big and strong he was. How good he felt to touch. I shouldn’t be noticing these things about Hassen of all people. And yet. And yet.
I’m attracted to him, and I haven’t been attracted to anyone else on this planet. I couldn’t get past the horns and the fangs and the tails—dear lord, the tails. But with Hassen, I’m not thinking about that. I’m mostly thinking about pectorals. And how velvety soft his skin was.
You wish me to fuck you? I accept.
Is it…wrong to want to tap the ass of a man that kidnapped my sister?
Probably.
Am I thinking about it anyhow?
Oh, yeah.
“I didn’t think I’d be this bad when I was pregnant,” Josie is saying. “Like, I thought once the baby was in, I wouldn’t want Haeden to touch me until it came back out again. But oh, man.” She sighs dramatically and wraps her arms around her torso. “Being pregnant just means I need sex all the damn time.”
“We know,” Stacy says dryly, putting a new cake on the fire. “You’re noisy.”
“Don’t care,” Josie’s voice is cheerful. “It’s just that sometimes you gotta scratch an itch, you know? And lately, man, have I been itching.”