Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92559 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Are you all right,” Apex asked hoarsely.
There was a heartbeat of pause. And then the male answered—by extending his tongue, lowering his head, and licking his way around Apex’s stomach. Which he’d come all over the first time.
“Oh . . . fucking hell . . .”
The sensations of that warm, slick tongue lapping over his abs was enough to bring the good times back for a third time—and he was never, ever going to forget the sight of Callum bent down to him, the wolven’s arms bowed out, his icy blue eyes gleaming from under his lowered lids, the heat and the sex making everything razor sharp and totally buffered at the same time.
“Sorry,” Apex mumbled as he got hard all over again. “It’s been—”
He stopped himself.
Callum paused, too. “It’s been . . . what?”
“A really long time. Since I’ve done anything like this.”
“How long?”
“I don’t want to freak you out,” Apex muttered.
When all he got was a whole lot of no-more-tongue-action and an arched brow, he groaned, “I haven’t been with anyone in person in decades.”
This got him rewarded with another lick, right over his belly button. “And what about by yourself.”
“I’d rather not answer that.”
“Why?” More with the licking. Thank fuck. “Why don’t you want to—”
“Not often, okay. It wasn’t often.”
And when it happened, you were all I was thinking of, he thought—
Callum froze again. “I was?”
Fuck, guess he’d said that out loud. “Yes, you were.”
In the silence that followed, Apex looked over at the ashes in the hearth. Then at the suitcase that was still sitting there with its top blown off, like it was a shooting victim. And finally, he returned to the wolven’s beautiful, masculine face . . . specifically those lips, those eyes, that flush.
“What did you think of,” Callum said softly, “when I came to your mind?”
“It wasn’t anything bad—”
“What did you picture?”
Apex lowered his lids. “That I was about to kiss you.”
“About to?”
“That was all . . . it ever took.”
Callum licked his lips. “Are you thinking about kissing me right now?”
“Yeah. I am.”
With the prowl of the wolf he was, Callum stalked his way up Apex’s chest. Then he hovered his lips just two inches away.
“Was I this close?”
Apex started to breathe heavy again. “Yes.”
The wolven lowered himself a little. “How about . . . this close?”
“Yes,” Apex whispered.
Down a little more. “What about this close?”
All Apex could do was nod—because suddenly he was coming once more, his cock kicking as he groaned, his chest pumping as his hips did the same.
And that was when Callum sealed their lips—and went even farther. He laid his body down, all his contours fitting Apex’s like they’d been made together. The kissing just kept on going, but Apex was careful. His arms stayed by his sides.
He wanted Callum to know that he was free to leave at any moment.
Even as he prayed the male would not go.
The kissing . . . was waking up parts of Callum that he hadn’t accessed for years. Decades. Not since before he’d been—
No, he wasn’t going there, to that female and her guards. He was staying right here, on top of his vampire, in front of the fucking ashes of the past.
Callum felt Apex’s orgasm once again, the wetness, the heat, fusing their stomachs together. And the mouth-to-mouth was incredible. Apex was a harsh male, a killer with a prison record, a remote mystery in so many ways. But fucking hell, he had the softest lips, and the sounds he made? It was a purring, a groaning, a panting—
And that was when it happened.
Callum started to find his own release.
He’d been so focused on Apex that he hadn’t paid attention to his own body: the fact that he was hard, that he was straining for a release, that his balls were getting tight. And his hips just took over as he began to work his erection against Apex’s.
Even though his combats were a barrier, he felt enough.
He felt so much.
Breaking off the kiss, he dropped his face into Apex’s neck and shuddered and bucked and grabbed on to whatever there was—the vampire’s arms, his shoulders. Then he locked ahold of the other male’s hands.
It was so good, it was so right.
It was like being cleaned from the inside out. And when he finally stilled, he exhaled and went limp.
“Are you okay?” Apex asked roughly.
Dimly, through his wonderful float of relaxation, Callum thought . . . that was the third time the vampire had posed him that question.
Callum lifted his head. “I’m trying to be.”
Apex closed his black eyes. “You shouldn’t force it.”
“I think . . . I might be,” Callum whispered.
He had to believe it was possible.
He just had to.
CHAPTER THIRTY–THREE
Come with you?” Mayhem repeated. “Where?”
Even though, duh, the answer was yes. Disney World? Sure. Off the lip of the fucking Grand Canyon? Fine. Edge of the world? All she had to do was—