Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I know what he lost.
I refuse to make the same mistakes he did.
“I had some things to take care of.”
She searches my face for a long moment. “Uh-huh. Well, I also had some things to take care of.”
“Eurydice,” I bite out.
“Charon.” She mimics my tone. “You don’t get to keep secrets and then expect me to spill all mine.”
My hands move on instinct, catching her hips. She’s wearing a coat, but it’s too thin; I can feel her body clearly beneath the fabric. “It’s not the same.”
“Okay.” She flattens her hand against my chest. We’ve fallen into a bit of a comfortable friendship over time, but there’s a new intention in the way we touch each other after last night. I know I should hold off, should put some distance between us, but with the Cypress Bridge looming over us, I can’t quite make myself release her.
“You’re right. I don’t regret taking you to Minos’s party. Because you held up your end of the promise and listened to me when I gave you an order. You knew it was dangerous, and you trusted me to protect you—just like I trusted you to not do anything reckless that would get you hurt.” I lean down a little without fully meaning to. “Whatever you did tonight? It was reckless. I ought to put you over my knee and paddle your ass.”
She smirks, and it’s a bolt of sheer lust to my system. Eurydice doesn’t fear me in the least, and I want to inhale her fledgling brattiness straight into my lungs. She shifts her hand, pricking my chest with her long nails. “You’re all bark and no bite.”
I don’t mean to draw her closer, to back us toward the large pillar at the entrance of this side of the bridge. There’s not much light to begin with, but here in its shadow, everything feels softer. Dreamlike. “I am trying to give you what you need.”
“What about what you need?”
I know what she said last night. That I deserve more than a woman hung up on another man. Maybe she’s right. I don’t give a fuck. “Why don’t you let me be the one to make that decision?”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispers.
As if being so close to her isn’t a glorious agony already. I don’t say it. My desires are not her responsibility. But last night changed things, whether she wants to admit it or not. She wants me too. She loves me, and not only as a friend. “Life is full of hurt, baby. I meant what I said. I won’t pressure you, and I won’t throw this shit in your face.” I should stop there. But she’s close and touching me, and I can’t let this moment slip past without telling her the full truth. “I know you have unresolved shit. I know your heart still hurts for him. But I’m not so selfish as to need your whole heart, Eurydice. Any pain that comes from being with you is far outweighed by the joy of having you in my life.”
“You really mean that.”
It’s not a question, but it demands an answer all the same. “I do.”
“And if I said yes? That I would give this a shot?”
My heart is pounding so hard, I’m surprised she can’t feel it. Maybe she can. “I’d like to say I’d take you home and romance you slow and sweet.”
“I don’t want slow and sweet, Charon. I don’t know if I ever did.” She drags her hand lightly down my chest to my stomach. She’s moving slowly, giving me plenty of time to stop her. Gods help me, but I don’t. Not even when she cups my cock through my slacks. Eurydice squeezes me lightly. “What if I want fast and hard and…now?”
I have kept myself on a tight leash, and she’s doing her damnedest to pick it apart, thread by thread. “I am trying to do right by you.”
She leans back against the pillar. I can’t see her expression clearly, but I know her well enough now to know she’s got a challenge in her eyes. It’s a flicker I’ve seen more and more often in the last few weeks. I shouldn’t enjoy it as much as I do; when she’s challenging me, she’s not doing what I say, which means she might be acting out and putting herself in danger.
She’s not in danger right now.
I’m standing between her and anyone that might be out on the street. I can’t claim to know every bit of her, not when she’s showing me glimpses of pieces I’ve never seen before. But I know my intentions.
“I am heartily tired of people thinking they know what’s best for me.” She rubs her thumb back and forth against the underside my cock where it flares. “Why don’t you start worrying about you? What do you want, Charon? Right here? Right now?”