Chapter 32 #2
The hair on my arms rose, my spine stiffening. “What do you mean by that? He should be dead?”
The memory of Merton’s words resurfaced—how the first researchers who discovered the cave had all died at the same time.
Merton should’ve died as well?
My stomach turned. What the hell was this cave?
“Where is it?” I demanded. Then quickly added, “And don’t you dare tell me you don’t know. You sure as hell do.”
He shook his head. “You can’t go there.”
I rolled my eyes. “Merton did.”
“I don’t know how he did but stepping foot in its perimeter can kill.”
I recalled Merton telling me his group didn’t go inside in fear they might not make it back out, but apparently, one couldn’t even walk in its perimeter.
“How much do you know about it? Tell me everything.”
“It’s nothing.”
I pushed. “Merton told me they hammered down a piece of the cave and it wouldn’t stop glowing in the dark. Shouldn’t that have killed them?”
He frowned, then shook his head. “It’s impossible.”
“Which?”
“You can’t even get close to it. It’s deadly.”
Okay, now I want to see the cave more than ever.
Thrax’s eyes darkened as though he just read my mind. “Don’t look so intrigued. There’s no way I’m letting you near that.”
He knew where it was located, too. “But—”
“No. It’s dangerous.”
“Did you live there?”
“Humankind has a habit of associating me with bad luck and strange issues they can’t find explanation for. But no, I didn’t live in a cave. There was this thing called a house then.”
Thought as much. “I really can’t go there?”
“The cave has gotten five times more powerful in the last few years, so no. Grace it with an unwanted presence and you’re dead in a minute.”
My shoulders dropped, knowing there was not even a slim chance of seeing that cave with the kind of stubborn look on Thrax’s face. “Including your presence?”
“Everybody and everything wants my presence.”
I shook my head, trying to bite back a smile. “I don’t.”
One eyebrow of his arched in that entertained way before his hand slid down to the space between us, cupping my pussy in his large palm.
“Do you want me to show you proof?”
Despite the needy lust coursing through me, I still managed to find my voice. “It’s just physical attraction.”
His short laugh was breathy. “Yeah?”
I nodded.
Thrax leaned in, planting kisses on my jaw. I swore he was a kisser. He wouldn’t stop doing it ever since he could.
“Good for you. I’m afraid it’s too late for me to withdraw.”
“Then don’t try,” I whispered, the heat of his hot palm still cupping me nearly making me dizzy.
“It will ruin us both, Nher. You said it yourself that this is only temporary.”
I wanted more. Hell, I needed every piece that made him the man that he was.
I needed his truth, his lies, his thoughts, his secrets, his time, his story, his body, his mind, and would have also taken his soul if he had one.
I knew in my blood that it wasn’t just physical attraction.
It was more than that, and I’d do anything to not make this just temporary between us.
I voiced my thought. “I don’t want it to be temporary.”
He drew back, staring me in the eyes. “It can only be temporary,” he said, hinting at the big reason why it could only be so.
He’s immortal.
I protested. “But—"
“You’ll forget everything, Sanora. Once you leave here, it will all look like a dream.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to forget.”
“You will.”
I held his gaze as I tried my luck one more time. “Before I leave, will you show me the cave Merton talked about—”
“I’ll fuck that name out of your mouth if you don’t stop saying it.
” His voice deepened as he added pressure to my clit and dragged his palm over it once, making me gasp.
“The only name I want coming out of your mouth when I hold you like this, or gods, when you’re around me, is my own name.
And you don’t give me that often so I’m not okay with the name of the boy you met some minutes ago rolling out of your pretty mouth casually. ”
Goddamn.
The unhinged look in his eyes had my inside unravelling, my heartbeat picking up a quick pace that almost had me struggling for fresh air.
The last few hours had been the best hours of my life, all because the Soulless Man kept showing me new sides of himself that I wouldn’t have imagined—not even in my wildest dreams—that he possessed.
I loved it. I loved every one of them.
His hand left my centre, the heat disappearing with him as he gripped my hair, bringing my lips to his.
He loved kissing me. And I loved that he loved doing that. My fingers were sliding through his long hair in no time, kissing him back with the same intensity.
Only when we were both starved for air did we stop, his forehead coming to rest against mine.
“Also,” he said, one hand tangled in my hair and the other one coming to my throat. “I haven’t seen, touched and had women you cannot imagine.” He returned the words I said to him earlier. I listened, waiting for him to continue. “I’m celibate.”
My heart halted.
Stunned, I reared back to take a proper look at his expression, hoping for any trace that he was kidding. But the punchline of the joke never came. “What? How long?”
“Six hundred.”
Slowly, I nodded, although I was struggling to digest it. That was a lot of time for a man like him. “Six hundred days.”
“No, Nher,” he said. “Six hundred years.”
The world stopped breathing for a second before it crashed, plummeting me into an endless tunnel of shock.