Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
“I’m not sad.”
“No?”
“I’m…annoyed.”
Khalil’s hand leaves my thigh to tuck an errant curl behind my ear. His thumb somehow sweeps my jaw as he whispers, “We’re very annoying.”
My lips twist when I feel myself wanting to smile. “I won’t argue with you there, Poverly.”
“That’s a first.”
“Don’t push it.” My nostrils flare, and Khalil drops his head against the railing with a sigh.
“Trust is earned, Aurelia. Every time you promised us you wouldn’t run, you ran.”
“I know that,” I snap and feel my cheeks and neck warm at the reminder.
Khalil’s brown eyes soften a moment later. “Do you?”
I feel myself softening against my will, too. “Yes, Khalil.” Freeing my legs from between the rails, I stand, and so does Khalil. “Maybe I overreacted. I think I’m getting my period.”
My period…
It’s due in a few days, and I’m suddenly terrified that it might not come at all.
One problem at a time.
“Let me stop you right there. You didn’t. We hurt you, and the last thing we want is for you to invalidate or downplay your feelings. Not for us or anyone.” When he reaches for me, I go to him. “All we ask is that you give us the chance to fix it. Don’t run away.”
“And how will you fix this? Even if you did trust me, I can’t leave this mountain, Khalil. Someone will recognize me.”
“Trust is earned,” Khalil repeats as he reaches inside his heavy winter coat. It’s the first time I notice he’s fully dressed. “But it’s unfair of us to withhold it forever without giving you the chance to claim it.”
He pulls out a wooden object that’s flat with curved edges with two downturned oval holes for eyes near the center, a long snout for the nose and mouth, and two triangular tips for the ears. I recognize the carving he’s been working on for over a week—since the night Seth lost his virginity, and Khalil fucked me for the first time while I was unconscious.
“What is that?”
“I wasn’t sure at first when I started, but it was your face I saw the entire time I was carving it.”
I glance down at what I now realize is a mask and then back at him with a raised brow. “I look like a wolf?”
Khalil’s smile is sly as he hands me the mask. “I don’t know. Put it on, and I’ll tell you.”
I hesitate long enough for my heart to skip a beat, and then I curl my fingers around the wooden mask. “It won’t be comfortable,” Khalil warns me before I can lift it toward my face.
“I think I’ll manage.”
He looks nervous as I fit it over my face, and the world immediately narrows around me. All I see is Khalil as I stare back at him through the eye holes in the mask.
“Can you—”
Khalil is already reaching for the ties, securing them in a knot behind my head. He then turns me around to face him and checks the fit.
“Never take the mask off, and don’t speak to anyone,” he commands.
My stomach fills with nervous butterflies. “Are we really going into town?”
I was resigned to never leaving this mountain again.
“Yes. If anyone asks, your name is Aurora. You’re my cousin visiting from the States.”
It’s all the instruction I’m given before he takes my hand and leads me over to the deck door.
“So, where are you from?” I ask curiously.
Khalil glances at me over his shoulder as we enter the house. “Six Forks, Nevada.”
“Hmm…never heard of it.”
THORIN
“I want to drive,” Aurelia announces when we finish topping off the snowmobiles with the gas cans.
She’s bundled from head to toe in gear to protect her from the cold and hide her identity. Thanks to the balaclava, there isn’t so much as a single golden curl visible, but it doesn’t help untwist the knot in my stomach. The only part of her visible to us is her brown eyes, but even Aurelia has been careful to keep her thoughts guarded. She knows we’re watching and waiting to see if she’s playing us.
God, what the hell are we doing?
We knew she was working Seth, but maybe she’s working us too. One look at the devastation on her face this morning, and I knew I’d give whatever to make sure I never saw it there again.
We’re at the base of our mountain, preparing for the fifty-mile journey to the small town of Hearth, and it’s all I can do not to drag her ass back to our cabin and tie her to my bed. I don’t care what happens to me if we get caught, but Aurelia being taken away from us…I’ll die before I let that happen.
Khalil crooks his finger since his ride is the only one equipped for two passengers, and Aurelia walks over to stand next to him.
“Do you know how to drive one of these?”