Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
The hallway is empty.
Thane is gone.
Again.
11
THANE
This time, I don’t leave the tower. I’ve tried to avoid the woman—to avoid this place—for weeks, and it took one encounter to have her wrapped up in me and cumming again.
Distance won’t work.
Maybe exposure will.
Even as I reason with myself, I know I’m looking for excuses to take what I crave. I barely recognize myself in these encounters with Catalina, but for the first time in five long years, I am not thinking about the past. Instead, I’m plotting the future.
Yes, that vision of the future ends with Catalina on my cock, but it’s still a change I’m not sure I welcome. Up until this point, pleasure has been something to seek in order to scratch an itch: a need like food or water or sleep. It hasn’t been something I’ve craved. I never thought I’d feel that draw again, and I can’t help the guilt that comes with it. Brant has been gone for years, but it feels like a betrayal to want Catalina this much.
It doesn’t matter. It’s inevitable.
I find Della in the kitchen first thing in the morning and relay my instructions. Perhaps I should leave again and return in twenty-four hours to enact my promise to Catalina, but there’s no point to a challenge that isn’t challenging. My presence seems to incite her as much as hers incites me. If she can manage to be . . . good . . . while spending the day with me, then I’ll reward her tomorrow night.
Anticipation licks through me, quickly followed by guilt. I shouldn’t be enjoying this woman. Her presence is something to be endured for the sake of the territory. She’s not a plaything to entertain myself with.
Even as I tell myself that, I make my way up the stairs to Catalina’s room. It’s different than the one from Ramanu’s first check-in. I had her moved to a lower part of the tower with a room better outfitted to serve her needs. If it also happens to be closer to the entrance pool, well, that’s simply coincidence. The door is a bit hidden when one is climbing the stairs, so she must have missed it during her first ascent.
I knock before I can find a reason not to.
Catalina doesn’t make me wait long, but when she opens the door, dark hair tumbled with sleep, clutching a robe around her, I wonder at the intelligence of this plan. She looks soft and touchable, but I must not touch her right now.
I move back. “Get dressed.”
She eyes the new distance between us and rubs her face. “It hasn’t been twenty-four hours.” Even her sleepy voice is enticing. Goddess, but I don’t understand what draws me to this woman. Why now, when I’ve finally settled into some semblance of normalcy?
“What is the point of a test if you’re not tested?”
She brightens, and the smile she gives is so true, it takes my breath away. “You’re going to spend the day with me? You mean it?”
My guilt grows, gaining layers. Guilt over letting her presence outshine the shadows of my past. Guilt for my obvious neglect. “I’ve ill-treated you, haven’t I? Why hasn’t the harm clause been enacted?”
“Oh, that. It’s not harm if it’s normal.” She waves it away, but she won’t quite meet my gaze. “I’m used to it.”
Used to it.
So much encompassed in those three little words. I can’t go back and change my actions in the past few weeks, but I can change them going forward.
Selfish. You want her, and you’re looking for an excuse.
Yes. Yes, it’s true.
“You shouldn’t be used to it,” I grind out.
Catalina tucks a long strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I don’t suppose we can leave the tower?”
“No.” I hate the way her face falls, hate even more the way she smiles to cover her disappointment. “Tomorrow,” I find myself saying. “I’ll take you out.”
She narrows her eyes. “Is there a caveat on this offer? Are you going to tell me to be good or that I have to scrub the entire tower before I can leave?”
“Do you view both of those things as equally impossible tasks?”
“Of course.” She turns and gives me a sultry look over her shoulder. “I think you’ll find I’m never good, Thane.” Catalina shuts the door in my face before I can come up with a suitable response.
It’s just as well. My only response would be to drag her to me and kiss that smart mouth of hers. I shake my head slowly. I tasked her with being good, but the true challenge might be for me not to give in out of sheer desire.
I head to the formal dining room that hasn’t been used in goddess knows how long. Five years. Annis waits there, her hands clasped in front of her. She squeaks a little when she sees me. “Everything will be ready soon, sir.”