Tithed Read Online Free PDF

addition and subtraction on the human heart. It didn't work. She could fact and figure her way into an assumption of the future, and use the numbers to lead her choices toward positive or negative, but in the end, it all came down to something she could not control.
         Either Connell loved her, or he did not. And no matter how many times she looked at the numbers, she wasn't able to decide which of the two most likely results were going to happen.

    "Connell."
         His eyes opened wide to darkness and he sat up. The curtains blew in the open window. The chill, salt-scented breeze made him shiver.
         "Ella?"
         A portion of the darkness peeled away from the doorframe. In the next moment she slid under the covers and into his arms. His nose filled with her scent, while the dark silk of her hair tickled his bare chest. She wore a thin flaxene gown, and his hands told him she was bare beneath it. The points of her nipples rose hard against the cloth, and at the feeling of them, he was hard too.
         "Make love to me, Connell."
         Oh, how badly he wanted to. Her mouth was already on his, her tongue darting between his lips with the delicate aggressiveness that never failed to stiffen his cock and make his heart pound. His hands tangled in her the glory of her hair, and she moaned when he tugged it. She moaned louder when his teeth found the soft flesh of her throat.
         He had no fear they'd be overheard. His secluded rooms over the garden shed meant only someone standing down there in the night, listening on purpose, could possibly hear her. Yet something made him hush her. He put her from him a little more roughly than he'd intended, and the whimper as his fingers gripped her arms made his heart lurch with grief.
         "Ella," he said. "I want to make love to you. But we can't."
         She sat up. Moonlight filtered through the window and flashed in her eyes. She was crying. "We have to."
         Connell shook his head, pushing her hair away from her beautiful face. He was dreaming this as he'd dreamed so many other times. He already knew her reasons for seeking the safety of his bed when they both had always known he could not be her first lover. Her ahavatara.
         Connell didn't have magic. Giving him her virginity meant she'd tithe herself to him forever, her use of the thrall would be compromised and she would never reach her full potential as a magicreator. They'd always known it. They'd always known their desire needed limits. One day she would no longer be his Ella but belong to someone else.
         "I don't care," she whispered. "I love you, Connell. You. And I want to be with you. I don't care if I never harness the thrall, I don't care—"
         She did care. He knew that. She had to. She had no choice. Elspeth had magic, and it couldn't be denied. He had nothing but a strong back and hands that could build. Nothing but sweat and effort. She had the chance to have it all, but not if she wasted it on him.
         "Ella, I can't let you."
         "Please, Connell!" Tears choked her voice, and she shook in his arms. "Please, before it's too late! Once it's done, he'll be able to do naught about it."
         "Who, Ella? Who?"
         Silver tears slipped down her cheeks like trails of star fire. "He said he'd make sure Mother and Father put you out…and your parents too. And that he'd kill you himself, if he knew you'd laid a hand on me again. He said I'm bringing shame to our family, that I'd better not disgrace him by tithing myself to someone with no magic!"
         "Your brother doesn't scare me," Connell said angrily, but the sight of her face made him fall silent.
         For the first time, he saw why his Ella had gone so pale and thin the past few months. Why she'd stopped smiling. His fingers tightened further, and her small cry made him relax. His heart lodged in his throat. "I'll tear him apart."
         "I'll