Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 702(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 468(@300wpm)
Hawk grins. “A walk-in shower. Hell yes! I haven’t been in a bathroom this nice in ages,” he whispers, and I decide not to point out that my bathing chamber at the Nocturne Court was larger than Mrs. Moore’s living room and featured a whole garden of medicinal plants.
I guess this tells me something about him, as did his lack of car. If he is poorer than the average human, talking him into becoming my Dark Companion should be easier.
In the bedroom, we had the soft green glow, but here, the stark white light is almost blinding, and I am painfully aware that he will get a good look at all of me. I don’t want to be a coward anymore, I want to be a man my mother won’t deem unworthy of even saying goodbye to.
Yet I pause, stiff as a dead tree when faced with a man Hawk’s size in close quarters. I stare down at his shadow, so alive with the need to be bound. He’s not a shadow-wielder, so he cannot see it, but its darkness is like a void, as if he were standing in thin air over an endless chasm. If I step in, will I fall?
I clear my throat. “I would just like you to take into account that despite my size, my body can offer many pleasures.” I cringe, regretting my wording already. Damn it. I should have been more enticing. More flirtatious. More… something.
Hawk blinks, already, opening the zipper at the front of his hoodie. He cocks his head and cups the side of my face with that massive hand. “Hey, I know I’m a big, scary-looking guy, but you can breathe, okay? I’m gentle as a lamb.”
Only when he says that do I realize that my breaths have been shallow. I inhale and nod.
“It’s just that the situation is quite peculiar. Indeed, I’ve never seen a man like you.”
Thinking becomes much harder when he takes off the hoodie, revealing his strong body covered in not only tattoos but also thick, dark hair that reaches his wrists. I touch his forearm, too curious for my own good.
The deer etched into his flesh where I choose to place my fingers seems to flinch at my attention, and a little shiver goes down my spine as the dark hair tickles my skin. And there’s so much more of it within reach! On his chest, over the pile of bones marked with the words RIP Grandpa, and the left pec, where four paw prints sit as if the small animal that left them was there moments ago.
“A man like me?” Hawk asks, unbuttoning the top of my shirt.
“S-so hairy,” I utter in amazement even though I tremble with nerves as my own skin is revealed inch by inch. I’ve been taught to be reserved, to think my words through, but everything about the body in front of me defies logical analysis. “May I?” I ask, hovering my hand over his stomach, and when he nods with an amused expression, I press my palm to the coarse hair and thick muscles.
The tips of my ears burn, and I’m losing my mind. He is lust personified, and I’m powerless. We’re not even doing much, and I’m already getting hard.
Even his scent, while tart, as if he’s been working all day, is not unpleasant, and when he leans closer, I’m initially too brainless to react in any sensible way. Then, he picks me up by the butt, my growing erection presses to his stomach, and he’s licking my cheek as I lose my footing and frantically hold onto his shoulders.
“You’re so damn beautiful, you know that?” my hairy monster says before effortlessly spinning around and… carrying me into the shower.
Suddenly, I’m at his eye level, all too aware of just how easy it is for him to manhandle me when I don’t have my shadowcraft for even an ounce of defense.
“Am I?” I whisper. Then, in a bout of absolute madness, I steal a quick kiss from his lips. I can’t get over how hairy his face is. It… scratches me, since the short dark stubble feels like boar bristles.
I find myself with my back to the tiles inside the shower, his hands firmly planted on my ass, his torso between my legs, our mouths so close together I could kiss him again and again, but as I struggle to make up my mind, he dives in first and rubs his scratchy cheek against my neck before kissing it. “You’re like a prince from a storybook, with such fine fingers and wrists, such a pretty face, such big eyes…”
I smile as my heart pounds faster. He’s making me so much less nervous about my body. I slide my fingers up his nape and into his long hair. Some of it is tangled, coarse to the touch as if he lived in the wild. Who is this man with a shadow so exquisite the Lord of the Nocturne Court would envy me my Dark Companion?