Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 105775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
A bout of envy assaults me. I want to fill in the gaps but no stories or pictures can make up for the time I lost with him.
Tatiana’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “We’re ready.”
I turn around to find her standing in the middle of the floor with a worn hoodie in her hand.
Noah runs to her.
She puts an arm around him. “His bedtime is at eight, so I suggest we get a move on if you still want to go out for dinner.”
I smile a patient smile, one that clearly gets on her nerves from how her nostrils are flaring.
Jasper waits in the lounge with her arms wrapped around herself, shooting daggers at Reino. Tatiana takes her tote bag from the coffee table without a word.
While Ulysses escorts the women and Noah to the vehicles, I take Kent aside and instruct him to pack up the house. “Get two of the guys to help you. I’ll let you know where to deliver everything.”
He nods his understanding.
Reino stays to oversee the arrangements.
We take my car. Ulysses drives. Noah is sandwiched between Tatiana and me in the back while Jasper sits in the front. I take out my phone and look up a restaurant with good reviews before giving Ulysses the address.
He’s programming the GPS when a text message from Penelope with a link to a guesthouse drops on my phone. The hotel where she booked our rooms is full.
A few seconds of browsing are enough to establish the guesthouse isn’t going to work. The place is a security nightmare. Sliding doors open onto a pool deck from every room, and the property isn’t fenced. Can Noah even swim? I make a mental note to find out. If not, I want him to take swimming lessons asap.
My reply is short and sweet. We’re sticking to the hotel. I don’t care what Penelope has to do to secure a suite. Besides, my security team has already scouted the hotel and its surroundings.
I tell my assistant to make it happen. I sure as hell pay her enough to use her imagination. Then I text Reino, instructing him to get the suite number from her so that he can check in and follow the routine security protocol. He replies with a thumbs up emoji just as we arrive at the restaurant.
“No tricks,” I tell Tatiana and Jasper. “Or Noah and I eat alone.”
Noah takes that as a joke, giggling as I instruct the women to behave.
When I take Tatiana’s elbow to guide her up the red-carpeted stairs that lead to the entrance, she pulls away and walks a couple of steps in front of me with her hand on Noah’s shoulder.
It’s a weeknight, so the place isn’t full. It’s a fancy joint with starched tablecloths and polished silverware. The patrons are dressed in evening wear, which is probably why the host who greets us drags a gaze over Tatiana and Jasper’s unsuitable attire with a downturned mouth.
He takes one glance at Noah and informs us they don’t have a kids’ menu. The look I give him when I tell him to instruct the chef to get creative shuts him up quickly.
He leads us to a table at the back that’s slightly removed from the others where we’ll be out of the way. Tatiana makes her way through that room as if she owns the place, turning heads as she goes. Like the mafia princess she was born to be, she walks as if everyone else is overdressed.
The hem of her T-shirt reaches her thighs, but I know beneath that fabric, her tight ass sways with every step. I’ve seen her enough times in figure-hugging skirts and skinny jeans. That self-assured walk is only one of the things that made me crazy for her. Tatiana has never lacked self-confidence, not outside of bed.
Is she still shy and innocent between the sheets, or has she gained confidence in that area too? As always, the idea of her with another man sends brutal thoughts to my mind and cruel intentions coursing through my blood. My fingertips burn with the urge to inflict slow, painful damage, to torture any man who touched her to his last, laborious breath.
Placing my hand on the small of her back, I press my lips against her ear. “Even defeated, you still walk like a goddamn queen.”
Goosebumps run down her arm. At the same time, her back turns rigid, but she holds her head high and carries on to the table where the host pulls out a chair for her.
There’s no arguing she was made for this life, the kind we lead in the family. Even in a T-shirt and leggings, she’s more elegant than the prick judging her as he hands me the wine list can ever dream of being in his penguin suit.