Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 141(@200wpm)___ 113(@250wpm)___ 94(@300wpm)
Gently cupping her cheek, he turned her head until she was facing him. “Calliope, I’m sorry. I never meant things to be like this between us.”
“Why are you bothering to apologize to me? I am, after all, just a lowly slave. My feelings don’t matter, right?” She looked away again, her eyes glistening.
“I’m sorry I said those things to you. But I was hoping… well, do you think you could ever reach a point where you could learn to care for me, even just a little?”
“What does it matter? Regardless of how I feel you’ll do what you want. I’m at your mercy.”
“What can I do to change your mind? Despite what you think, I don’t want you to hate me.”
She turned to look at him again, her eyes seeming to beg him. “Then let me go home. Let me and my child go back to where we belong.”
If she would have asked for anything else he would have gladly given it to her ten times over, but that was the one thing he couldn’t do. Sadly, he shook his head. “I can never let you go. You belong to me, and as long as I breathe, that’s the way it shall always remain.”
CHAPTER 8
“Mama!” London wailed as Callie held her tight.
“Quiet, baby. We can’t make a sound.” Looking around the corridor, she scrambled down the hall. If she could make it out of the castle to the loading docks, then it was possible she’d be home free.
After the incident in the mechanical garden with Blaze, Callie knew she had to find a way to escape. He would never let her go, and the longer she stayed the stronger her feelings for him became. She wasn’t sure how they’d snuck up on her like that, but one minute all she could think about was getting away and the next she found herself longing for him. She didn’t want to be in love with him. She had her daughter to think about, and she had to get back to Earth to reunite with Paris.
Since that time in the garden, he’d moved her from the harem room to his chambers, making his message clear. Callie didn’t miss the other concubines. They’d all excluded her from conversation and made rude comments when they did speak to her. The thing was, she wasn’t sure if staying in his chambers was preferable. The only perk of her new lodging was that when he wasn’t there, he allowed London to visit.
Once, he’d come back to his room while she and her daughter were playing a game and joined them. It was a little unsettling to her how much she’d enjoyed that, and London for some reason really liked Blaze and he her.
At night, he made Callie’s body sing in ways she didn’t think possible. Each time was so hot, she was sure it couldn’t get any better, but it did.
The most surprising change in Blaze was that he showed her a side of him that made it hard for her to resist. She saw his softer side. Whenever she mentioned something, he’d give it to her. He seemed like an eager puppy at times trying to gain her attention and she didn’t know why, didn’t know if she could trust it or the way he made her feel when they touched.
Callie knew how easy it would be for her to grow comfortable in her situation. That couldn’t happen. As long as Paris remained on Earth, she could never stop trying to get home. The problem was how. She had no idea how to fly on a ship, and she had no means to get back to Earth until she’d overheard two of Blaze’s men.
Ever since he moved her to his chambers, he allowed her to go out to the mechanical garden with London whenever she liked, with an escort of course. Two of his men talked about a trip through a black hole that would take them to the Milky Way. There they would study the inhabitants for an experiment.
That conversation had given her hope, because she knew the only habitable planet in that galaxy was Earth, thanks to Mrs. Crowder’s 6th grade science class. Deciding that she would need to stow away, she set her plan into action.
Only minutes before, she’d made love to Blaze like never before, giving her all, heart and soul, because in her mind it would be their last. It had been so world-shattering he’d drifted off to sleep not too long afterwards. She then snuck out of the room and ran to the servants’ chambers to fetch her daughter. Fortunately Nola was sound asleep. Sweeping up her daughter from her tiny cot, Callie stole off into the night.
She knew the ship was due to leave in the morning, and she’d have to spend the night on it, in some hidden compartment. She turned around another corner and was again relieved to find it empty.