Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
She tried another smile. “I’ll do my best, Gedeon.”
Gorya indicated for her to step through the doorway. Wraith had committed them to this path. She had no real choice. She squared her shoulders and stepped inside. Gorya crowded close enough behind her that she could feel his heat and smell his feral scent surrounding her. She moved all the way into the enormous room, hoping for some respite from her own pounding heart as he closed the door on freedom.
4
Gorya hadn’t expected to feel anything at all for the exotic creature standing just a few feet from him. She looked pale and delicate—extremely fragile, as if the least little disagreement would have her dissolving into a flood of tears. She had steel running through her, yet at the same time she was fragile. She just didn’t accept that she was.
“Our leopards certainly didn’t hesitate, did they?” He had to find a way to reach her. Maya was closed off to any possibility of a relationship between the two of them. In all honesty, he had been as well.
He didn’t have a soft side. There wasn’t anything good left in him; maybe there never had been. If there had, he couldn’t remember it. Still, there were his cousins and their wives. He was fiercely loyal and protective of them. He didn’t just feel mild affection for them. He loved them. He knew he did. Twice, when he’d heard of a threat to Evangeline, Fyodor’s wife, he had quietly gone on the hunt and killed whoever had threatened her. No one had ever known. He wasn’t a man who needed or wanted accolades. He didn’t want to be noticed. He got the job done.
Maya wasn’t joking about weapons. He knew she was armed, and he was aware that if she felt threatened, she wouldn’t hesitate to use force to get free.
“No, Wraith knew exactly what she wanted.” Maya looked around the large room, anywhere but at him.
“We can figure this out between us.”
Her gaze suddenly collided with his, and his chest felt like a vise. There was no logical reason for the physical reaction at that look she gave him. She had no intention of entering into a relationship with him. None. He brought his palm to his heart and pressed hard to ease the unexpected ache. He didn’t want a relationship either.
Gorya knew he had nothing to give her. He was too damaged. Too brutal. Too violent. Too far beyond redemption. There had been a feeling of relief in making the decision to end the fight for sanity. He knew Rogue was a killing machine and he was eventually going to lose control of him. He was already losing control of himself. The more violence he used in cleaning up the territory—which was necessary—the worse he was becoming. Yet looking at Maya, something in him responded to her, which made no sense at all.
“Let’s start with a tour of the house. You’ll need to know your way around. It looks big, and there are escape routes, but once you know the rooms and who belongs and who doesn’t, you’ll be comfortable here.” He kept his voice strictly neutral. Pleasant, not giving away the fact that he was as conflicted as she was. Maybe more so.
The scent of her drove him half out of his mind. He considered that it might be pheromones, but he feared it was just Maya without Wraith’s influence. Wraith had subsided, as often happened during a heat. He knew because, for the first time, Rogue was at peace. He couldn’t say the same for himself. He hadn’t liked his bodyguards—not even Gedeon—in close proximity to Maya. None of his reactions made sense, and he was a logical man.
He didn’t wait for her answer. Better to be a tour guide and show her through the house than try to figure out the impossible. He didn’t like to dwell on emotions. That wasn’t part of his life. Emotions led to bad things—like revenge. Like the rush he felt in the hunt or with brutality and violence. He couldn’t afford to give in to that vile side of who he was, especially now that he had to protect Maya from himself. Damn his leopard for claiming Wraith. By doing so, the cat had complicated his life beyond measure.
“Obviously, this is the entryway. Italian marble. The curving stairway leads to the second story. The entire house is about eight thousand square feet.” He indicated opposite the stairway, where a table and six chairs sat on a thick rug in front of a bank of curved floor-to-ceiling windows covered by heavy drapes. “Open floor plan for the most part. If the leopards are prowling around, it makes it easier for them.”
He led the way past the table to the enormous kitchen. “Chef’s dream right here. The cabinetry is custom.” He liked the kitchen. It was the one room that had a homey feel to it, although it was extremely large. He liked the arrangement and the white with gray and black accents. The industrial stove, ovens and refrigerator were silver or black. The center aisle was very large and had comfortable black barstools with rounded backs.