Rhapsodic (The Bargainer, #1)

by Laura Thalassa

“I don’t want to talk about this, Callie. I don’t want to analyze what I feel for you. I want you to say yes, and then I want to fuck you until you’re saying my name like a mantra.”

“You have over three hundred favors to repay me. By the time we’re done, you will realize that Eli and all those other men were just a dissatisfying dream. That this, and only this, is real.”

“The clothes were always there waiting for you. Last night, I just wanted to see you in mine.”

I can’t believe I’m about to say this. “How did you feel, leaving me?” I ask. He holds my gaze. “Like my soul was ripped in two.”

I feel like my world’s being overturned. “And the seven years that followed?” I breathe. He stares at me, unwavering. “A nightmare.”

He presses his lips close to my ear. “Do you want to know a truth of mine?” “Always,” I say, turning my head to better face him. He takes my hand and presses it against his chest. Beneath my palm, I feel his heartbeat racing. My eyes move from his chest to his face. “It does that whenever I’m around you,” he says.

I smile a little at that. He pulls me closer. “Ah, I would give my kingdom for that smile alone.”

“Let our enemies come, and I will kill them all. So long as you’re at my side, cherub, I have something to fight for.”